Sam Allardyce has insisted he has no interest in returning to management "at the moment" and believes his successor at Crystal Palace, Frank de Boer, deserves more time.
The 62-year-old's talk of enjoying "a break from football" is, however, a significant departure from his statements when he resigned from the club saying he had no plans to ever return.
It has been reported that, after losing his first three league games, De Boer's position is already under threat and that Palace would be interested in luring Allardyce back to Selhurst Park.
Sky Bet make De Boer the odds-on 8/13 to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job. That's ahead of West Ham boss Slaven Bilic (7/4) and Arsenal chief Arsene Wenger (12/1).
During his five months there last season, Allardyce said he did not want to be seen as a survival specialist.
Upon his resignation in May, shortly after helping them preserve their Premier League status, he also spoke of having "no ambitions to take another job", adding: "I simply want to be able to enjoy all the things you cannot really enjoy with the 24-7 demands of managing any football club, let alone one in the Premier League."
Yet speaking to Talksport on Tuesday, he said: "Being associated with any club at this early stage of the season would not be of any interest to me at the moment.
"I have just had a trip to Hawaii watching from afar and I went to watch Manchester United on Saturday and I wouldn't associate myself with any job at this moment in time.
"Three games into the Premier League season, it is a little hasty when people talk about you coming back into football.
"At this moment in time, I am very comfortable in my life. My time in the Premier League for many, many years has been tremendously exciting and I have enjoyed every minute, but having a break from football is the right thing for me to do.
"I am just watching Premier League football with great interest, watching how it is panning out, and not living under the pressures that every manager in the Premier League is."
Palace have so far struggled in losing to Huddersfield, Liverpool and Swansea under De Boer, who was sacked by Inter Milan last season after only 85 days.
Allardyce has also often spoken of his belief that Newcastle acted too hastily when replacing him with Kevin Keegan in 2008, and cited Stoke's recovery from a poor start to the past season under Mark Hughes as reason De Boer can succeed.
"If you look at Stoke last season, it was seven or eight games in before Mark got his first three points on the board and they finished in one of the highest places they have ever done in the Premier League," he said.
"It is early days and people need a little bit of patience.
"They have all got to work together to try and get it right."
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