Many pretenders to Palace throne

25 August 2014 07:01

Crystal Palace's turbulent managerial search will not deter top candidates from chasing the vacant Selhurst Park job, according to Keith Millen.

Caretaker manager Millen does not believe Palace will struggle to secure Tony Pulis' successor, despite the club already missing out on two targets.

Palace were forced to pull the plug on appointing Malky Mackay after the FA launched an investigation into Cardiff's allegations he sent racist, sexist and homophobic text messages.

Tim Sherwood withdrew his interest after initially being deemed second-choice to Mackay, while bookies' tips Steve Clarke and Ally McCoist claim Palace have made no contact.

Palace were overwhelmed 3-1 by West Ham in Saturday's home Premier League clash, but Millen still believes there is interest in the Eagles job.

"The manager's job is a good job for anyone, there's plenty of people that would want it," said Millen.

"You look at the squad we've got, and if we can add two or three to that we'll be fine.

"The fans are the best in the league for me, so there are no issues about maybe trying to attract the right people: it's just maybe whether the chairman's found the right one yet.

"It is a great job, I think any job in the Premier League is a great job.

"I know the people at this club and I can honestly say it's a great club to work for.

"I don't know the timings and dealings of Malky, Tim, the conversations they've had.

"Obviously Tim's said what he's had to say.

"It's certainly a good job for someone though.

"The chairman still has his views on what he wants, and I think that's why he's openly looking still, and I think that will continue."

Cardiff's complaints against Mackay also led to the resignation of Palace's sporting director Iain Moody.

Moody was implicated in the alleged text message conversations with Mackay, during his time as head of recruitment at Cardiff.

Admitting there was no defence for the allegations against Mackay and Moody, Millen tipped the former Cardiff boss to find further work in football in future.

"I don't know how far down the line we were to agreeing for Malky to be our manager, but it was out there and then for all this to come out has shocked football," he said.

"It's a shame, it's not right what's been said, Malky's a good football person and he was a good manager and I'm sure he will be again in future.

"And Iain's very good at his job.

"But the stuff that's out there isn't right, and you can't condone that.

"So the manner of the way the week's materialised is tough to take, and it's very confusing on what we're trying to do.

"The board have done their homework on people, spoken to people.

"For Malky to be taken out of the equation, you almost have to start again."

Source: PA