Been reading one or two messages on here re the subject ... two things following Palace since Jan '73 I've never understood. The first is the timing of bringing Big Mal in when we were doing OK in the league - we beat Chelsea first game under Allison then went on a losing run and got relegated - I remember the feeling that we were going up in the world getting the ex-City boss in - why didn't we wait till the summer if we wanted to upgrade, and why did we feel the need to upgrade?

Any fans older than me who can remember the circumtances their take on it would be welcome.

And while I'm here I've read the explanations but the collapse of the team of the 80s under Bloye and Venables, the mass exodus to QPR, never really understood the issues and how it went so wrong so quickly, most seem to put it down to Bloye as an asset stripper, but there were no complaints about him it seems until the autumn of 1980 - the mismanagement must have been going on before it all went pear-shaped - explanations welcome.

I suspect the club wanted to take the next step upwards and Malcolm Allison was glamorous to their eyes. Bert Head's record in those years suggests it was a mistake, despite Allison bringing in Venables as a player, but also towards a career as a coach.
I seem to recall we did a semi-swap deal with QPR, wherein they took Don Rogers ( genius-player, but knees had gone) and we got Ian Evans ( fine, goal-scoring centre-half) and Venables ( legs almost gone).
We certainly collapsed over the next couple of years, but Venables developed as a coach with us, even though I seem to recall QPR tried to get him back.
The promotions under Venables were great but "The Team of the 80's" title fell apart when we sold Kenny Sansom & didn't really replace the greatest full back we've ever had. Maybe, like Pardew, the cup run gave a false sense of success to Allison's time with us.

Palace were going down if my research (wiki) and memory is correct so Bert was moved 'upstairs' and Big Mal brought in with about 10 games to go but he couldn't halt the slide. Bert had been with us seven seasons so was probably not a kneejerk decision.

The best of times of the worst of times was to come under Allison and Venables over the following seven years.

Big chest and massive boobs

[Link]

The mass exodus to QPR, following Venables, was in large part due to the fact he was involved, directly or indirectly in an agency* (a fore-runner of today's agents) and I think at least 4 of our players were on the agency's books. So once El Tel had left it didn't take a genius to know others were sure to follow!

* It was named after his former wife using her maiden name of Christine McCann [Agency]. Clearly nothing dodgy going on there and the bright sparks at the FA & FL clearly thought the same....

Edited by Dweeb (27 Feb 2017 11.15pm)

Taking the bungy jump since 1964. Never to see John Jackson in a shirt again

Sorry to see Lee Hills go, did we ever see Alex Marrow? We did January 2013

Some memories !

And yes, I was supporting the team in the 'Bert Head' days when the 'Palace Dollies' welcomed the team on to the pitch ! I have been supporting the team since the 60s - I am 65 this year.