Could Frank Lampard be the man to take over from Oliver Glasner this summer?

Unless you have been living under a rock, potentially deliberately, depending on how much you love Oliver Glasner, Crystal Palace need a new manager for the start of next season.

Glasner has opted to leave, and despite the best efforts of Steve Parish and the hierarchy to influence that decision, there was nothing that could be done.

Now there are of course, definitely seven more matches for Glasner to sink his teeth into before he departs, and we all hope for an eighth and for Palace to make the Conference League final.

But, in football, things move rapidly, and there is simply no time to wait on finding a replacement for Glasner. Palace must act very quickly.

Bournemouth showed what can be done when Andoni Iraola was announced as leaving, bringing in Marco Rose with immediate effect.

Palace have gone for a slower approach, possibly as they are unsure who they want next or possibly as they have someone in mind who is already in employment.

There have been a few names linked - Robbie Keane, Thomas Frank and Andoni Iraola - to name but a few but there is another name that has somehwat gone under the radar.

That is Frank Lampard, the Chelsea legend who has just secured Coventry promotion to the Premier League in his first full season at the club.

Now, there have been links, from the BBC, Teamtalk and Football Insider naming Lampard as a potential heir to Glasner’s throne.

But could he actually come?

Honestly, right now it seems extremely unlikely.

He has just secured promotion with Coventry and then backed that up by winning the Championship.

Now he will want to prove people wrong, after spells at Chelsea and Everton in the Premier League that were not exactly successful.

Doing so with Coventry, where the expectations will be simply to stay in the league, as opposed to Palace, who will be looking to keep up the progress of the last few years, will likely suit Lampard more.

Then, of course, there is the fact that he is loved at Coventry; he has achieved something that they could have only dreamed of a few years ago.

But, football is fickle and what if Lampard and the board do not agree on transfer targets this summer?

What if key players leave and Lampard gets a sinking feeling that relegation is more than just a possibility?

Again, both of these seem unlikely; things seem extremely rosy indeed at the Sky Blues.

But, Lampard is down as a 10/1 shot with both Sky Bet and Paddy Power and so there must be some method to their proverbial madness.

It seems unlikely to me that now is the time for Lampard to leave Coventry but as I have said, football is a funny business and you truly never really know what is right around the corner.