THE managerial merry-go-round is now in full swing - with Stan Ternent reportedly being urged to jump aboard.

A rounded broadsheet report, not tacky tabloid spin, puts the Clarets chief slap bang in the middle of a shortlist - along with Iain Dowie, Steve Cotterill and serial applicant Bryan Robson - to replace Steve Kember, who was dismissed earlier this week after less than six months as Crystal Palace manager.

Stan's credentials are there for all to see. In fact, given his recent track record, it's amazing he's not been sounded out for some of the more senior posts on offer in English football's higher echelons.

It must also be pretty tempting right now for the Burnley boss to listen to anything his former employers may, or may not, have to offer.

Stan is no stranger to South London and the problems he has had to endure, notably this season, must have him pulling his hair out and weighing up life on the other side of the north/south divide.

I've lost count of the number of times I've struggled to contact him this season as he flits from office to training ground to motorway and back again in a frantic effort to recruit more players.

Yet for all his hours of frustration, I seriously doubt that even if Palace came knocking, he would walk out of the job that lured him 'home' five years ago.

Taking the top job there would be akin to jumping from frying pan to fire, given the Eagles have a well-oiled revolving door leading to the manager's office. Kember's replacement will be the third incumbent in 12 months and, incredibly, Palace's 12th manager in the last decade.

Right now, Ternent is where he belongs - and the prospects for Burnley Football Club without him at the helm hardly bear thinking about.

His bulging contacts book has, as Andy Payton rightly pointed out in yesterday's Telegraph, enabled five £1m players - Robbie Blake, Ian Moore, Glen Little, Delroy Facey and Luke Chadwick - to line up for the Clarets.

You would have to do some serious digging through the archives to beat that - and who else in charge of this football club in recent years could call up Alex Ferguson and persuade the Manchester United boss to part with Chadwick for a year?

All this and more has been achieved with a serious pull on the purse-strings and a summer clear out of epic proportions.

As the battle rages, and Burnley continue to punch above their weight, I expect this to be the first in a line of jobs the Burnley boss becomes linked with as desperate clubs turn to experience in the face of financial ruin.

Let's just hope the equally desperate Robson keeps throwing himself forward to grab the headlines. That way, at least the spotlight will be off the little miracle happening at Turf Moor.