With the Premier League season drawing to a close, clubs will have the chance to re-evaluate their squads, assess their performances and then target new players to strengthen in the summer.

But it becomes a little more difficult to accomplish that when you don’t have a manager.

Interim boss Roy Hodgson has done a fine job rescuing Crystal Palace’s season, after Patrick Vieira was sacked on March 17.

But rebuilding the squad for next season is a completely different challenge, and with Hodgson rumoured to move into the Palace hierarchy, there will be a vacancy in the Palace dugout.

But who could take charge at Selhurst Park next season?

We've taken a look at the two early front-runners for the job.

 

Marco Silva  

 

According to a report from The Daily Mail, Crystal Palace are likely to target Fulham manager Marco Silva, with the Portuguese said to be on the Eagles' list of wanted managers.

Tottenham, West Ham and Leeds are all reported to be interested in Marco Silva, along with Crystal Palace.

Silva has done a fine job with Fulham, guiding the newly promoted side to tenth in the Premier League, only seven points off the European places.

Silva has managed to get Mitrovic in fine form this season, in a competition he typically struggles in. The Serbian broke the Championship goal record when Fulham won the title last year, scoring 43 goals in 44 games, shattering Ivan Toney’s previous record of 31.

But the Premier League is where Mitrovic has typically struggled, scoring just three times for Fulham in the 2020/21 season and nine times for Newcastle in the 2015/16 season. But this year he’s equalled his Premier League personal best with 11 games in 21 games, achieving that tally in 16 games fewer than he managed four years ago, when he scored 11 goals in 37 matches for Fulham.

It's not just Mitrovic that Silva has overseen the development of.

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The Portuguese has helped Willian regain some of his old form, scoring five goals and tallying three assists this season, which is more goal involvements than the Brazilian had at Arsenal, even though he played 11 more games with the Gunners.

Andreas Perriera has also improved under Marco Silva. The Brazilian has managed to score more Premier League goals for Fulham than he scored in his entire Manchester United career.

It may be hard to lure Marco Silva away from Fulham, after the great success that he’s had with his first season in the Premier League with the club, but the Palace project is one of the most attractive destinations for a manager currently, and the Eagles could look to tempt him to change the west of London, for the south.

 

Arne Slot

 

According to The Mirror, Crystal Palace are interested in Feyenoord manager Arne Slot, and sporting director Dougie Freedman has already made contact with Slot to talk about him moving to Selhurst Park.

Slot’s team are currently top of the Dutch Eredivisie, one win away from securing the title. Feyenoord sit on 76 points, with three games remaining, and their closest competition, PSV, are eight points below them.

The Dutch club have won their last 11 games in the league and reached the quarter-final of the Europa League, where they lost to Roma, and the semi-Final of the KNVB cup, in which they lost to Ajax.

Typically, Feyenoord like to play the same formation as Palace, 4-3-3, so Slot’s tactics could translate well if he was to move to Selhurst Park.

Feyenoord’s Sebastian Szymanski and Orkun Kokcu have both come up with a lot of goals for the Dutch side this term. They’ve combined for 17 goals this season, and that could be exciting for Palace fans.

Slot could help to transform the Palace midfield into one compact with goalscorers. Currently, Palace’s starting midfield three of Jeffrey Schlupp, Eberechi Eze and Cheick Doucoure have 11 goals between them.

Eight of Palace’s goals from midfield this season have come from Eze, who’s been one of Palace’s outstanding players this year.

In previous seasons, there has been an over-reliance on Zaha to perform, but this year is one of the only times that we’ve seen a Palace team thrive without Zaha.

Obviously, Palace are a better side with Zaha in it, there is no question of that, but in terms of talent, it could be one of the strongest Palace squads in recent years.

Whether Freedman’s contact to Slot was successful or not, only time will tell. But if Slot does come to south London, the facilities are in place for him to really develop this Palace team. If he can add more goals from midfield and continue to develop Palace’s frontline, they could be one of the teams to watch ahead of the new season.