The former Crystal Palace manager Steve Coppell has been working as a scout for the club as they prepare for Saturday’s FA Cup final against Manchester United.
Coppell, who had four different spells in charge of the club and was in the dugout for their famous run to the final in 1989-90, was asked by Alan Pardew to assist him in watching Manchester United before the sides play at Wembley. Pardew believes Coppell should still occupy a higher-profile role in the game.
“Steve is a legend – and he is involved in this process at Palace for the cup final,” Pardew said to local media.
“I have included him in our scouting team, he is doing us a bit for Man United. I’ve had him watching them as a completely outside pair of eyes. He has given me what he thinks might be good options.
“I have thought about bringing him here but he can only do one job, and that is football manager. He cannot do any other job. And I think he will be the first to tell you that. Sitting upstairs is not him. Scouting is not him. Coaching is not really him. He is a manager.
“It is a shame he is not in the game because the game is losing out. For this game, I’ve had a little insight into his brain – he might give me a couple of little nuggets.”
Pardew admitted Coppell, whose last major role was as director of football at Portsmouth in 2013-14, has a more conservative view of football but nonetheless welcomed his input.
“There are a couple of things I probably will discard, you know he is a bit more safety conscious than me,” he said. “So there are a couple of things we disagree about. But it is nice to have that, for me to have Steve Coppell here, and to bounce a couple of things off him is a nice feeling.”
