It’s the run up to players returning to their clubs, the week when faces are missing and new ones are seen. Uncertainty will also continue throughout the month right up to the eve of the new season fixtures. However this week the decisions to be made are all surrounding Steve Cooper, will it be Fulham, will it be Palace, will it be chips or jacket spuds, we’ll have to wait and see.

The compensation for Steve Cooper continues to be the stumbling block for Crystal Palace and Fulham, it’s not huge money but their refusal to play ball up until this weekend must have placed Steve Cooper in a quandary. If he was that much a wanted man then the long and drawn out pathway he has been on for the past month seems to tell us he isn’t that valued by either club.

Certain discussions regards the release amount have been the issue, but both the swans, Palace and Fulham have tried to formulate a satisfactory conclusion, and you would expect that this will certainly play out this week. If both Palace and Fulham listen to their fans they wouldn’t be anywhere near Steve Cooper. They really don’t want him.

In the meantime Julian Winter, as we have disclosed on here numerous times is in the hunt for a new manager when Cooper departs. First up Michael Appleton. If he did become the replacement for Cooper it would cost the swans £700,000. That’s the price on his head in his contract at Lincoln City, and he has two good years left on that agreement. However, the real issue is Appleton himself. He has already turned down approaches by his ex employers at WBA. This surprised them greatly and the WBA support in the main tend to agree, they feel their club is too big for him. Appleton has a project at Lincoln, a club that showed faith in him when appointing his services, and it seems Appleton is keen to show some faith to the club, a rare thing these days.

The silence from Cooper is deafening, it’s clear he wants out, and we feel this week we will all know the answer. It needs sorting out, the players return this week and they want stability, the club wants reassuring so they can complete a variety of sales and purchases for the new season. Contracts are up this week for many, Jonathan Woodgate has already stated he is no longer the manager at AFC Bournemouth, Scott Parker is most certainly clearing his desk at Fulham readying himself to replace him, so that still leaves Fulham and Palace managerless. The only positive for Cooper is Fulham wouldn’t appoint him until Parker has gone, maybe that’s the reason for the wait ? If that is the case they have first dibs on Cooper, it would tell us he is already agreed to take over.

The same doesn’t apply to Crystal Palace who were shunned at the last minute by two candidates earlier in the month when ALL the sports media reported Nuno Espirito was the new manager.

Hopefully this week brings a final remedy to this ridiculously long drawn out saga.

For everyone.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

dantheswansman added 07:35 - Jun 29 Wish him all the best, we don’t deserve him, two top six finishes and apparently that’s not good enough all of a sudden, this fickle Swansea lot would have killed for a playoff place at beginning of season, he’s best out of it, we’re easily one of the most toxic groups of supporters in football, I know first hand because I’ve had to endure the embarrassment for the last 20 years

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