Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Blink and you would have missed it. Frank De Boer’s stint as Crystal Palace manager comes to and end after just four matches. A spell that was as barren as it could have possibly been. Four defeats from four and a failure to get a score a single goal during that time.
They did play better against Burnley on Sunday and you would have felt that even that small glimmer of hope would have been enough in which to keep the former Dutch international in charge for the home game against Southampton this coming Saturday lunchtime.
But club chairman Steve Parish has wielded the axe in somewhat unceremonious circumstances with De Boer being given his P45 before Monday lunchtime. It perhaps comes as no real surprise due to the whispers circling around the club before the weekend but surely if managers are getting sacked this early in the season then we have to ask ourselves what is the point?
Does this now mean that no manager can lose four games in a row at any point of the season, if a club had a similar spell midway through the campaign do we then have to start advocating for the more sackings in the Premier League.
More importantly it begs the question as to what Steve Parish has done over the summer. He went on record and said that the next appointment was not to use the club as a stepping stone. Quite simply you cannot build foundations in four matches.
Why if the club hired a manager which wanted to change the style of play did they not then support the new incumbent with funds in the transfer window. They’ve asked De Boer to carry out a task without the tools required in which to do carry out.
Parish also mentioned that there are not a lot of funds available, therefore if that was the case and he knew that there was going to be wholesale changes required in terms of personnel then why was De Boer hired in the first place.
Surely if the budget does not allow an overhaul in style then you hire a manager who can work with the players that are available. Perhaps change was coming around far too quickly but to not let the man in charge at least see his ideas try to come to fruition smacks of desperation from the Palace hierarchy.
In fairness the record cannot be any worse and that ultimately will be the noose around the former manager’s neck. Had they at least got goals on the board then you could point to things moving forward even if it was at a near glacial pace.
Who is in the wrong. De Boer for not getting any results or Parish for not backing his man in the transfer window, truth be told no-one comes out of this situation with any real credit but for me it seems as if the latter is hiding his mistakes behind the now former Palace manager.
Not only that but they have moved very quickly in a bid to steady the ship as Roy Hodgson is set to step into the Selhurst Park hotseat. After his Euro 2016 aberration in charge of England he ends his managerial exile charged with the task of once keeping Palace in the top flight.
There seems to be something about Selhurst Park and former England managers as Sam Allardyce carried out the now annual great escape and after a Dutch interim it is over to the 70 year old to try and steady a ship that has gone through some very choppy waters in the opening weeks of the season.
Any ideas of football that is easy on the eye will go out of the window as Hodgson’s pragmatic approach will come to fruition. The man has got very little credit in the bank after the shock exit to Iceland last summer in the European Championships. Will there be one last hurrah to his career or will Palace’s top flight status come to an end.
God forbid the former Fulham boss loses his first four matches in charge. Otherwise Palace could be looking for their third manager of the season by November.
