Former Everton star Michael Ball is sceptical over the potential appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo as the club’s new manager, amid reports that he may well move to Crystal Palace instead.

The ex-Wolves boss left Molineux at the end of the season after four years at the club and has been heavily linked with the hotseat at Goodison Park, with Sky Sports saying the Merseyside outfit were in talks with the Portuguese.

Now, though, a new report from The Telegraph claims that Palace have made him their No.1 target in the wake of Roy Hodgson’s departure.

Santo guided the club from the Championship into the Premier League and kept them there, bringing in a number of stars, with Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, and Rui Patricio all becoming key members of the squad.

Wolves struggled throughout the 2020/21 season, though, and ultimately finished 13^th, winning just 12 games and losing 17 throughout their 38 matches in the Premier League.

They were 14 points behind Everton, who need to replace Carlo Ancelotti following his departure to Real Madrid.

Santo had taken Wolves to seventh the season prior, so this was a particularly disappointing campaign for the club, and Ball does not believe he would instantly make the Toffees better, given that he had a better starting XI at Wolves than he will have at Everton.

Speaking exclusively to The Transfer Tavern, he said: “Nuno seems to be the favourite right now, whether that’s a smokescreen to see how the fans will react on social media, I do not know, he brought fantastic players to Wolves and he did well.

“But he had a very, very poor 18 months, so why is that going to be any different at Everton? He probably had a better team, of 11, at Wolves than Everton.”

Ball may well believe this is a bullet dodged.