‘It all seemed to be bagged’ – Manager was expected to join Crystal Palace and take player with him

Austrian coach Adi Hütter was set to join Crystal Palace this summer before Roy Hodgson’s superb run at the end of the season put an end to the plans.

That’s according to Frankfurter Rundschau, who say the manager saw his ‘big dream’ go up in spoke thanks the veteran manager’s impressive return to Selhurst Park.

The newspaper explains that the manager, who is about to join Monaco, had his eyes set on the Premier League, which has been his big dream for some time.

According to them ‘it all seemed to be bagged’ with Crystal Palace, who had handed Hodgson the reins until the end of last season but planned to ‘pass the baton’ to Hütter once the campaign was over.

The club had also made transfer plans, with Hütter planning to take Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Djibril Sow with him.

However, the plan started to unravel when Hodgson made an impressive return to his former club, taking 18 points from ten games and leading Crystal Palace to 11^th in the table, far away from their previous relegation worries.

He ‘was allowed to stay’ and confirmed a major blow for Hütter, whose career has ‘taken a turn for the worse’ since his departure from Frankfurt in June 2021.

The hope now is that he can bounce back in Monaco and put the disappointment of missing out on Palace firmly in the rear view mirror.