Kieran Maguire cites ‘£22m’ deal as Crystal Palace ready Steve Cooper appointment
Crystal Palace have the chance to strike a ‘bargain’ deal to appoint Steve Cooper after he was sacked by Nottingham Forest.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who exclusively told Football Insider that appointing Cooper for free is ‘fantastic’ but still a gamble.
As reported by The Telegraph, Cooper is available for free after not being put on gardening leave following his sacking at Nottingham Forest.
Palace would still be entitled to pay compensation to Roy Hodgson if he was sacked, but the 76-year-old is only under contract until the end of the 2023/24 season.
As revealed by Football Insider on Friday (29 December), Palace have held talks with Cooper about taking over from Hodgson at Selhurst Park.
Maguire believes signing Cooper for free would be a ‘fantastic’ deal given that Chelsea paid £22million in compensation to appoint Graham Potter in September 2022.
“If you take a look at Chelsea, who paid £22million in compensation to Brighton for Graham Potter then this does look like a bargain,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“They are gaining access to somebody with a progressive style of football who has been popular with fans at all the clubs that he’s previously managed and appears to have a decent set of values.
“So to get him for nothing, when Palace have had managers from different philosophies such as Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock and Roy Hodgson looks to be a good deal.
“My only concern is that when you’re dealing with a small club such as Crystal Palace, it’s always going to be a bit of a gamble.
“We saw that with Patrick Vieira, who seemed to be rather harshly sacked, and we also saw with Frank De Boer that the club doesn’t tend to cope particularly well with change.
“That would be my concern there, but on paper getting Cooper for free is fantastic.“
In other news, Crystal Palace striker signing plan revealed