Taylor back at Palace as the new manager

Peter Taylor has been unveiled as Crystal Palace's sixth manager in seven years after ending his three-and-a-half-year tenure at Hull City.

The former Leicester, Brighton and Gillingham manager, 53, succeeds Iain Dowie at a club where he enjoyed a stint as a player during the mid-70s. Taylor had looked to be a front-runner for the Charlton job but pulled out of the running. Dowie then took over at The Valley after leaving Selhurst Park, prompting the Palace chairman, Simon Jordan, to take legal action.

Taylor emerged as first choice ahead of Graeme Souness, Mike Newell and the Italian Alberto Zaccheroni. With a year remaining on Taylor's Hull contract, Palace will pay compensation of around £250,000 to their Hull.

Taylor's reputation took a battering during an ill-fated spell at Leicester between 2000 and 2001, but he restored it in style, guiding Brighton to the Second Division title in 2002 and Hull to promotions in 2004 and 2005. Yet his relationship with the Hull chairman, Adam Pearson, was fractured after the pair engaged in a public war of words during Taylor's flirtation with Charlton.

Despite insisting he remained committed to Hull, Taylor found the lure of a return to his native South-east impossible to resist.

* Hartlepool of League Two last night named Danny Wilson as their new manager. The former Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and Bristol City manager left MK Dons last month after they were relegated from League One.