Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish spoke last week of how he wanted to appoint a new manager who was not just looking to use the club as a stepping stone. It was reported that off the back of those comments there was meant to be heavy interest in current Burnley boss Sean Dyche.
But it seems as if that interest has taken an about turn with the news that the club are under going talks with Walter Mazzarri with a view to the former Watford boss filling the vacancy that was made available by the shock resignation of Sam Allardyce last month.
Watford and Mazzarri parted company before the final game of the Premier League season and although the former Inter Milan manager stayed on to see out the campaign he will probably wish he had not bothered as Manchester City ran out very comfortable winners at Vicarage Road.
For Watford it was a sixth successive defeat at the end of the campaign, a run of form that meant the Hornets finished 17th in the table. They may have secured top flight football for a third straight season but once again the manner in how things ended was not deemed good enough by the club owners.
The Pozzo family have quite the reputation as being trigger happy when it comes to managerial casualties and in the case of Mazzarri it was no different. The Italian may well point to the fact that he achieved the overriding objective which was making sure the club avoided relegation.
But at times it seemed as if the club lacked any real leadership and for many the question was just what exactly was the clubs identity, if the identity was to try and replicate the United Nations on a football pitch then they could have done any better.
Ultimately the lack of leadership comes from the top and that is where Mazzarri must bear the brunt of criticism his failure to learn English will have undoubtedly had some effect on his managerial reign at Vicarage Road, of course they say the game is a universal language but it was all too apparent at times that his ideas were not getting across.
That is something that if he was to be given the Palace job he will have to rectify as they will not want to get caught up in the same shortcomings next season. It is perhaps fair to say that the Watford fans and Mazzarri never really clicked but at the same token what is to say that it would be any different with the Selhurst faithful.
There is no doubting that Mazzarri is a competent manager but should Palace perhaps be suited to looking elsewhere, they will of course be smarting at the fact that they missed out on Marco Silva but at least there was the potential for the 39 year old to lay serious foundations in South London.
From a neutrals point of view, I just don’t see how Mazzarri is anything but another stepping stone manager or dare I say an appointment that does not suit the club. Palace obviously have to act quickly as they cannot dwell on a decision but they more than ever need to make sure they make the right one.
