Next Crystal Palace Boss: It's beginning to look a lot like Pardew

Alan Pardew's eventful four-year Newcastle reign may be ending

Almost all the money in the next Crystal Palace manager market is being staked on Newcastle's Alan Pardew...

Alan Pardew survived months of "Sack Pardew" campaigning and some unhelpful public utterances from Newcastle owner Mike Ashley - and it now appears as though he rather than his employers might be the one to break up English football's fourth longest-lasting manager-club partnership.

The Magpies boss is the 2.166/5 favourite to succeed Neil Warnock at Crystal Palace and an astounding 85% of the money staked in the market has been for him, from initial heights of 30.0 all the way down to 1.01.

It might seem like a backwards step for Pardew given the adversity that he has overcome this season to restore Newcastle to the top half, ten points above Palace, and the four years that he has spent at St James' Park.

However, his relationship with fans remains fraught and his job stability unclear despite recent progress - seven Premier League victories in 12, and Tottenham, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton all conquered since late October - so it is unsurprising that he is examining his options.

Indeed, his dissatisfaction at his Tyneside lot is such that he reportedly gave serious consideration to the possibility of dropping down a division to manage the side that he supports, Fulham, in the Championship before the Cottagers appointed Kit Symons permanently in October.

While Palace clearly aren't as big a club as Newcastle using the popular metrics of size of fanbase, trophy cabinet and media interest, there are obvious reasons why he would be tempted.

One is the opportunity to return home to London, while another is that he should be spared any of the animosity that has made this year at Newcastle so unpalatable, having been the man who fired Crystal Palace into their one and only FA Cup final in 1990.

Few Newcastle supporters would mourn his exit regardless of their improved form or his prior feats such as 2011/12's fifth-place finish, with their grievance now appearing to be as much about disliking Pardew the man as Pardew the coach.

There is a market on Betfair asking who will be Magpies manager on August 14 and, would you believe, it is former Palace gaffer Tony Pulis who is assumed to be the most probable beneficiary of this latest piece of merry-go-round-ary, being backed at 5.04/1 to replace Pardew.