Probably the statement of the season -

"Play pragmatic football within our budget"

I think their fans feeling is that they do spend reasonably big, almost always in the top 4. They just throw money at bad.

I thought they didnt renew his contract because he had done the job that they employed him for & at his age they didnt feel he was going to be the man to take the club forward as (at that time) we had the oldest team in the league & about 10 players out of contract, so it was felt that a change of manager was required in line with new signings & it would be better if any new manager had a say in the new signings-

Yes, Becky. Back to square 1 again. Panic button hit (possibly rightly or not).

What happens over the summer and who we appoint as manager will be interesting.

I wonder if there are issues at Board level and may be there will be changes there in the summer, hence the main reason for a short term appointment. Is it that or just panic as the (lack of) investors see their 'investment' about to crash in value.

Edited by fish mitten (29 Mar 2023 9.52am)

I think Palace fans have one of the simplest sets of expectations of any set of fans in the country, evidenced by how infrequently we vocally get on the players' backs compared to the West Ham, Man United, Newcastle, Aston Villa etc. of the world.

1) Put a visible shift in and be solid at the back - Jedinak, Gallagher, Riihilahti, Michael Hughes etc. go down in folklore for their work rate.

2) Have wingers that are willing to take a risk and get you off your seat - Bolasie, Zaha, Puncheon, Olise a year ago, Eze 2 years ago.

3) Don't roll over when you go behind - competitive in every game. Sick of us going 1-0 down and then waiting for full time. The top 10 have lost 64 games this season - it's embarrassing that not a single one was against us.

That is all good football is for a club like us. No stupid errors, look like you give a toss, and have a bit of flair up top to keep the entertainment up. Every so often you are lucky enough to stumble on a player like Cabaye that is a class above and you enjoy while it lasts and maybe have a particularly good season. We are never going to the new Ajax.

The team Pulis took over was, on paper, complete crap but they fulfilled that brief and worked bloody hard. PV's team didn't come close to fulfilling that brief over the past few months.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

I agree with a lot of this, and you are right to say that we aren't looking to be the new Ajax.

Both us and the club always end up back here, having this discussion about whether to play pragmatically or positively, whether we can develop as a team (or even develop individual players into valuable assets) with the former approach, and whether we can stay up with the latter. That's before you even start talking about what the point is of playing awful football just to say in a league so that you can carry on playing awful football.

As you suggest, it probably isn't strictly a case of picking one extreme approach or the other when looking for a new manager - whoever turns up will either have to adapt their ideas to suit our squad anyway, or fail whilst trying to impose an unsuitable idea (hello, Frank...).

For me, if we can get our hands on a more mobile forward I think the periods of games/months/seasons where we get at opponents, up the tempo, and give people something to shout about would increase. Then, all that time we spend in shape, shuffling around as a unit deep in our own half would at least be interspersed with genuine, dangerous counterattacks, which in turn would force more opponents to drop off a bit, which would allow Olise, Eze etc to play a bit more.

Unlike (for instance) fans of Spurs, West Ham, Newcastle etc I think Palace fans are content with a sensible balance between pragmatism and endeavour in something like a 60/40 ratio, and we probably don't need a ground-breaking, revolutionary tactical guru to achieve that, just one or two better players and a bit more effort. Better (and different) players up top would probably change our game more than any manager we appoint.

Having said all that, even balancing the three basic requirements you list is probably not as easy as it seems, at least not for a sustained period in the Premier League.

The Spanish have a phrase that translates to something like 'Football is a small blanket; you can keep your nose warm or your toes, but not both'. The price of a solid defence is a loss of flair up front, and the cost of a positive approach is a more open defence, and the Palace blanket has so often proved to be too small!