Crystal Palace appoint Frank de Boer as their new manager

The 47-year-old succeeds Sam Allardyce following his resignation at the end of last season, and has already spoken to former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal about the Premier League.

Palace have struggled against relegation during the past two seasons, and to that end De Boer has also targeted improving their poor form at Selhurst Park.

The Dutchman played under fellow countryman Van Gaal during his time at Ajax, Barcelona and Holland.

De Boer's arrival at Palace comes after a period of pragmatism under Allardyce, who replaced the struggling Alan Pardew, and he said: "I already spoke with Van Gaal, a very informal talk.

"Van Gaal is always very good to me and we always have contact and he was the first one to contact me with this new job in this exciting football world. He gave some good tips but that is for me.

"You have to be realistic and see what the quality of the team is and sometimes you have to play more reactive football than trying to be more dominant.

"Of course I want to be dominant if we can and if not we have to be compact. The quality up front is quite high so every team now has to play one, two or three systems and also different styles and we have enough time to teach them.

"I will give youth the opportunity when they are good enough and I'm interested to see how talented the players are.

"It is very important to start well. It is crucial for the whole period of the season. We don't want to struggle with relegation so home games are important.

"I have heard in not so good times the fans are supporting the club, so I'm looking forward to sitting on the bench and hearing them shouting for us."

De Boer was in contention to join Everton 12 months ago until Ronald Koeman's appointment, having previously interested both Liverpool and Tottenham.

He added: "I was quite close (to Everton) and it depended on Ronald Koeman at that time. First he didn't want to go and in the end he did. Maybe I was the second pick, but he is doing well.

"I need to see the players (at Palace). Of course I have my ideas and one or two signings that might be necessary, but first I want to see the players."

The Dutchman is Steve Parish's first overseas managerial appointment and arrives after a lengthy recruitment process in which 27 candidates, including Marco Silva and Mauricio Pellegrino were also considered.

"It was a little bit surprising (that Allardyce resigned), although we felt Sam was probably going to re-evaluate his position. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Sam for the work he did," Parish said.

"This is the first time in my seven years at the club that I have had any time to re-evaluate, so I worked with the head of recruitment here, with (co-owners) Josh (Harris) and David (Blitzer), drew up a list, looked at how we want to play, how we play now, what the style of managers were and it takes time.

"I saw Frank in Ibiza; people flew in from all parts of the world to see us. But I felt this was the week to get something done.

"Perhaps more importantly than all of that, two or three days after we met, Frank's agent called me and said 'there will be a story about Frank as this club is interested. We have had a call about him but just to let you know he is not interested in going there, he just wants to come to Crystal Palace'.

"We've been in the bottom three two seasons running for home form. Sooner or later that is going to catch up with us. We got away with it last year, make no mistake. We need to build a cushion and Frank's number one brief is to reduce mine and every supporters' anxiety."

The odds: How will De Boer fare?

Frank de Boer is 11/4 not to see the season out at Crystal Palace after being named as their new manager.

The former Dutch international was sacked after just 85 days in charge of Inter Milan last term but he’s 1/4 to make it through the 2017/18 campaign at Selhurst Park with our betting partners Sky Bet.

Were he to do so it would buck a recent trend at the club. Since returning to the Premier League in 2013, only Alan Pardew has completed a full season at the helm.

Sam Allardyce, Neil Warnock, Tony Pulis and Ian Holloway have all left after less than one full top-flight campaign.

Palace are 25/1 to get off to a flier under their new boss by winning their first three Premier League games - Huddersfield (h), Liverpool (a) and Swansea (h).

They are also 18/1 to lose all three.

The odds currently suggest the Eagles will finish in the bottom half for the third straight season. They are 2/7 to do so and 11/4 for a top-half finish.

It’s 9/2 they are relegated.

Having struggled in the first half of last season under Alan Pardew, Palace eventually finished 14th following the appointment of Allardyce.

However, within days of the season ending, the former England boss quit, saying he wanted to “savour life while I’m still relatively young”.