WARNING: This is a bit long, but..

There's been a lot of talk in the media and on here about the managerial revolving door that we appear to have, but is it as bad as it seems? I was having a ponder back to the ones we've had since we were promoted and leaving out Keith Millen (sorry Keith if you're reading this) we've had:

Ian Holloway 2012-2013
Tony Pullis 2013-2014
Neil Warnock 2014-2014
Alan Pardew 2014-2016
Sam Allardyce 2016-2017
Frank De Boer 2017

and of course now Roy. Statistically it looks bad, but to my mind it seems to me that:

Ian Holloway - Quit as he felt he wasn't able to hack it in the premier and to be fair I think he was right. Don't think we can blame Parish & Co. here.

Tony Pullis - Seemed to be settled, but left over alleged transfer targets not being brought in over the summer. As memory serves he was basically trying to rebuild Stoke, but you could say some blame on Parish and Co. for not backing him. However Pulis was quoted afterwards on saying this:

"At Christmas it’s fair to say we had differences of opinion with respect to players coming in. But, look, a chairman has every right to ask why you’re doing things and challenge you. It’s their football club, their money.

"At the end of the day we were two adults going in different directions. I don’t really want to go any further into the reasons why I left; only to say that I had a wonderful 10 months there."

Neil Warnock - Always going to be a stop gap and evidently couldn't hack it as we were in the relegation zone and with half the season gone. Seems like he was given a chance, but couldn't seem to do the job.

Alan Pardew - His time is all fresh in the memory for us all, but you could argue that it's because of Pardew that FdB has gone as quick as he has. Made an immediate impact, but the switch to expansive football nearly cost us our place in the Premier League last season. Parish and Co. backed him to the hilt it would seem and came under a lot of flack for doing so, which might be one of the reasons why they pulled the trigger so quickly with FdB. A lot of promise (and promises) but couldn't deliver and with a hint of prima donna in his seemingly unbreakable habit of blaming everyone except himself. I think the majority would agree that in hindsight the decision to sack him was correct.

Sam Allardyce - Not a universally liked appointment, but he did the job and played to the strengths of the team and I think by the end the majority of us wanted him to stay on. His leaving was a shock and although some have said it's down to transfer targets not being backed, I'm not sure it was that and feels more like lazy journalism. His official reason for leaving was that he wanted to retire for now and spend more time with his family and he certainly seems to be doing this and enjoying his new life. I've not seen him pop up in anything to do with football apart from commenting on the FdB situation and him being approached. If it had been transfer targets I'm sure he would of taken on another job by now.

And now we come to FdB. If the rumours are to be believed and the man didn't keep to agreements about "evolution, not revolution" (anyone else keep thinking about Alan Partridge there?) and he was a complete bell end with everyone, then that with the results make sense as to why he's already got the boot. If someone joined my team at work and had a similar attitude then they'd be out on there ear even quicker as you can't have a disruptive force causing your team to not work efficiently, especially in a managerial role. I think that's true whether it be football or any job that requires people to work together.

Parish and Co. aren't completely blameless in the above, I'm sure they've butted heads with all the managers they've had and that's not unusual for any team, but I do think they've had their share of things outside of their control as well.

Seems to me that it's not as clear cut as the stats and those in the media would have it set out. Sure others will have an opposing view, but just my thoughts on the matter.

The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots

we need a manager who can make us solid mid table for 3 seasons. achieve that and we may gain financial flexibility and confidence to establish ourselves. the bottom line is that, under Parish, we have not. we have had a stench of fire fighting.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

Easy said, harder to do. That's a very rare quality, when you consider that even top teams, going for proven quality managers, make the wrong appointment. Hell, even the leagues most successful manager - Alex F - was wrong about his replacement.

Problem is, there are very few good managers out there, and less so at this level.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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My post is kind of related to this.

Parish has made 2 errors with Prem managers. Well 3 actually but Holloway did the decent thing and walked when Parish thought survival was beyond us and didn't want Holloway to leave. I think Parish doubted our chances of survival going by how long it took him to hire Pulis with that lucky availability was sitting by his feet like a cat wanting a treat.

The 2 errors have been:

1. Not sacking Pardew at any point within the 6 months between the cup final and actually sacking him. Not only that but actually extending his contract? I mean, seriously?

2. Frank de Boer. wtf? I didn't have him anywhere near suitable for us so when I heard I couldn't believe it. Then the promises of "gradual", "evolution, not revolution" and "results over style", quickly followed with "The squad suits 3-4-3" my doubts were multiplied. I thought Frank wouldn't work without all the change of direction but with it they may as well have stepped in 30 mins after he said "The squad suits 3-4-3." But their you're relying on the decision makers to know what that entails. Frank just used us to propel himself to the recent days of LFC type offers. "It could be any club. This year it's Crystal Palace" or something he said.

The next 2 years we're relying on some serious luck.

Luck in the next 4 months Benteke doesn't get injured.

Luck Wickham can come back and actually contribute.

Luck or some actual research into how we're going to replace Cabalye, Jimmy, Cheek and Mensah, plus others.

A reason why I think arish pressured himself into a similar Pardew problem is he envisages Zaha having to be sold and once he goes, so does our threat as a few chances per game team. He's just gone about it with the wrong manager(s).

But he can be good at correcting his errors or people walking out. It's just some of his decisions are costing the club money. Money which should be spent on worthwhile resources. Manager pay offs, extra left backs. He might get lucky on saving on a new striker. Or very unlucky in not having one. Same mistakes. Def mid when Jimmy got injured, 1 left back, 1 striker, keeper issues. The planning and thought in advance is way off what it should be at this level.

COYP

Quite right. SAF would have been out from Man Utd had Palace beaten him in the Cup. Luck for SAF . Pulls and Alladyce leave unexpectedly. Unliucky for Parish. FdB seem to brag his job. Unlucky for Parish. That is football. Like the ball hitting the post not the goal. That is luck. That is football. That is sport. That is why football is in our blood. Who knows what the score will be on Saturday?

Always remembering walking from the Holmesdale to the Whitehorse end at half time!

Fair point, but if you look back it's more like two thirds than a half. So just to be complete, taking aside the interim manager combination of Lennie Lawrence and Curtis Fleming (and I'll admit I'd forgotten about Fleming) there's only two managers that have been here since 2010 took over and the ones I've already mentioned, they are:

George Burley 2010 - 2011
Dougie Freedman 2011 - 2012

George Burley - Had a similar chance to Warnock in that he had up till Christmas, but the results didn't go his way. If the rumours about his drinking are true then that couldn't of helped his case either (let's hope they're not).

Dougie Freedman - Our current prodigal son who was hoodwinked by the promise of a vast war chest to build a team. How do you legislate against that when someone is promised the riches of avarice?

I think that's the lot now. I don't think it's fair to include interim managers as they are... well interim.

The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots