Spoke to a Palace fan this morning, who wants him out the door, 1 year left on his contract (4 million a year!) and lots of players contracts up in the Summer, thinks the football they are playing is turgid, and they need fresh impetus, and a rebuild, Eddie Howe incoming?
Lose tonight v Brighton , and against Fulham and Roys on shaky ground with the fans.
I dislike everything about Palace and I don't care for Hodgson either, but football really is getting quite depressing. Palace were incredibly lucky to get promoted to the Prem the season they were. They benefited hugely from some poor refereeing decisions and Zaha's ability to win penalties fairly and unfairly - they were awarded 19 (NINETEEN!) penalties that season, including multiple penalties in the same game on 6 different occasions. They only won one of their last 10 games in the league and limped into the play-offs, where they won the final with a penalty. They then proceeded to always survive by the skin of their teeth through desperate managerial changes every season, with Parrish always doing well to get in your classic short-term football firefighters at the right moments. The one time they tried to be a bit more expansive they brought in de Boer and he got sacked after 4 games with no goals scored. In comes Hodgson, who is now in an unprecedented 4th year in the Prem with them. They aren't good to watch but they never really look like a team who are going to get relegated while he's there, all this despite the fact he's had to do it with Jordan Ayew and Christian Benteke as his strikers and a revolving door of some of the worst goalkeepers you could imagine having in the Premier League. They can't or won't spend their way out of their situation, their stadium is an absolute joke of a historical relic and they really don't have the profile of a team who should have spent as long in the Premier League as they have given their infrastructure, backing and historical pull. Despite that they're 14th, have three teams behind them ahead of the drop zone in a league where the first two relegation spots are basically already settled, and are 7 points ahead of and a game in hand over a terrible Fulham side.
What are they going to rebuild? Unless they can clone Wilfried Zaha they don't have the money to do a full rebuild and they are only surviving with their weak squad because Hodgson somehow always manages to get them to nick enough points to stay at the top table. The football's turgid because when you've got hardly any money to spend unless you sell your best player you have to be solid more than anything else. Alternatively, you can enjoy trying to play expansive football in a lower division, but you can't realistically have both the way they go about business. And yet they want him to go because they feel like they deserve more. Palace are on borrowed time at this level, as is every smaller club, they all get their year eventually, and cutting off the exact thing that keeps you there is insane. But also sod 'em, sack him. It'll be hilarious.
All true, and you haven't even got to the worst bit: They did this at a time when a parade of fuckwits and gravediggers have forced us into the worst 15 years performance of our history.
Oohaah "If I say 'really shit' that is probably fair .What is really shit ?My relationship with Charlton Athletic is as a Second Tier or occasional Top Division club . The Turd Division when I was growing up as a Charlton supporter was beyond my worst nightmares, it happened for one season but promotion was immediate."
woy's nailed it - palace were at their all time peak when i started watching football and had the edge over us in the old second division - previously they'd hardly been out of the 3rd and 4th divisions - so he's right but knows the truth hurts and has had to back track
same with us and what curbs did although tbf 40 year's prior, we were a top tier club and west ham were similar to palace - never been out of the 3rd / 4th division
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