Thursday 14^th August and the new season is almost here finally!  What could possibly go wrong now this close to the season kicking off?  Tony Pulis leaving? Yes that would probably be the biggest disaster that could happen with less than 48 hours prior to our visit to Arsenal.  Well, with what initially broke as a morning tweet from Oddschanger stating that Tony Pulis’ odds on being the first manager to leave his job and what then developed into confirmation of him indeed leaving his job and becoming the biggest football story of the day was not what Palace fans had expected to hear nor saw coming.

It started as a bit of a ‘pinch of salt’ approach but progressed over the course of the day and ended in shock, anger, speechlessness and the stark reality that the Premier League Manager of the Season had in fact left the club and had indeed become the first manager out of a job before a ball had even been kicked.  Palace and non-Palace fans voiced their opinions on various social media sites, some constructive and many just simply pathetic from those who know absolutely nothing about the club and who fail to understand and appreciate the bigger picture.

Whilst I myself sit here shocked, stunned and gutted that he’s gone especially with the timing of it all, my anger is not with Steve Parish or the board it is more directed towards Pulis himself.  Why? Whilst I write this prior to the scheduled press conference with Steve Parish, the reasons behind his departure have been reportedly down to conflicting ideas regarding the clubs’ transfer policy.  Shortly after the season ended it was reported that Pulis sat down with Steve Parish and effectively advised Parish what levels of investment would be needed to establish yourself long term and to achieve what Stoke did.  Investment in training facilities, youth development, investment in players and in the club as whole.  Yes, people will argue that Pulis knows what he is doing and what tools he needs to achieve that in an ideal world and has had a very healthy and successful career in doing so.  However, it is Pulis who is the employee of Parish not vice versa.  Managers will always demand and Chairman will always look to support their managers to a degree but certainly won’t bow to demands and, more importantly, put the club in financial jeopardy to do so.

Pulis was used to spending big at Stoke.  £6m here, £8m there.  Palace are not there yet we don’t and never have spent that kind of money.  Up until Dwight Gayle signing last summer our record transfer fee was £2.5m and that was back in 1997!  I do not have an issue with Pulis sitting down and giving the board advice on what is needed to make the club established in the Premier League.  After all, that’s what he did at Stoke but they were there a fair few years before they gained that tag of ‘established’.  Palace have been back here just 1 year.  This is the first time we have ever stayed up and we are just 4 years on from that defining day at Hillsborough that saw us remain in the Championship and remain in existence as a Football Club.  We have come a very long way in just those 4 years and that is all down to owners CPFC2010.  4 wealthy and intelligent businessmen who are Palace fans and who have the club and their best interests at heart.  We have had to be very sensible financially and learn from past mistakes made under past owners and ensuring they are not repeated and so far I feel we have done just that.  We have had not one but two administrations in under 15 years and we certainly do not want to see the likes of Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle returning to make staff redundant, they were very dark times indeed.

So, yes we need to invest and be competitive as we want to establish ourselves as a Premier League mainstay but these things take time.  We are in a very healthy position now in that we own our stadium, we own our training ground, we have invested in the squad again and improved it, we have invested heavily in the refurbishment of Selhurst Park that was much needed and now looks fantastic I have to say.  Brand new hospitality lounges, brand new under soil heating facilities and pitch, brand new seating around the ground, a brand new big screen and an all-round much needed makeover for the old tiring stadium.  However, I am convinced that Tony Pulis wanted it all and he wanted it now.  I think he had very unrealistic demands of what kind of player we could get in and the wages we could pay.  It is being reported that missing out on targets such as Steven Caulker and Gylfi Sigurdsson was a big factor in this.  Both players signed for QPR and Swansea respectively for over £8m each! The thing is, did we ever have a chance of securing them from the off anyway?  Caulker had played with Redknapp at Spurs previously and we would never have been able to compete with the wages on offer there.  Swansea had the upper hand on Sigurdsson as they had previously had him on loan, he enjoyed his time there so we were never going to get him.  Would I have liked them both?  Absolutely.  Definitely.  Would I have liked the club to spend £16m on them both and the subsequent high wages?  No not really.  Here lays the problem. 

Regardless of how well Pulis did or how outrageous it would seem to let him go if there was a genuine breakdown in the relationship between manager & chairman then you have to move on and this is what has happened here I am sure.  You have to look at the bigger picture; do we go all out to keep Pulis happy at all costs?  No.  As mentioned, Pulis is an employee employed to do a job and will spend money like it’s going out of fashion if given it and will not give two hoots if it doesn’t work out.  For example, Steve Parish gives Pulis £30m to spend.  We struggle and end up relegated or bottom at Christmas and Pulis is dismissed midway through the season, what happens?  Palace go down with big players on big wages on long term contracts and find themselves back in financial trouble and back in the Championship.  Where does Pulis go?  He goes and gets another Premier League job and doesn’t give us a second thought about the funds spent at Palace that haven’t worked out.  Palace fans will know that this has been the cause of our problems in years gone by.  We have taken too many punts on players who simply haven’t done it.  Back in 2004 we signed the likes of Ivan Kaviedes and Sandor Torghelle but they just didn’t cut it.

Parish said himself that Palace would attract a higher quality of player the longer we remained in the Premier League which is true.  The longer you stay up and establish yourself the bigger and better players are interested in coming to you.  Pulis wanted Stoke in South London overnight and that just wasn’t going to happen.

As a result I am fully behind Steve Parish and CPFC2010 in putting the clubs interests first.  No player, manager or individual is bigger than the club.  I just feel that Tony Pulis believed he was bigger than Palace.  He has certainly gained from his time with us.  He kept us up which is what his mission was.  He did that and earned himself a nice £1m bonus.  He has further boosted his own reputation (that was already very good given his achievements at Stoke and the fact he has never been relegated).  The Palace turnaround will be one of his best achievements in football given the sheer size of the task and the emphatic delivery of the end result in, not only staying up, but finishing 11^th and convincingly at that and I will always remember this season because of it. 

I always felt that Pulis would never be here long term.  It was about here and now.  I said this last season just shortly after he was appointed.  After Ian Holloway left we took 6 weeks to finally get Pulis in.  He didn’t jump at the chance initially and reportedly had reservations over joining us given our predicament at the time.  When he did come in he always gave the impression that he was here to do a job, that was it.  Not be a hero or get emotionally attached to the club and the fans but to simply do a job.  A job that he did extremely well, granted, but a job nonetheless.  There was never a connection between Pulis and the fans like there had been with the likes of Dowie, Warnock & Freedman in previous years.  Whilst ths is not the most important thing I know, especially when you are performing, doing well and winning matches.  All the while things are going for you what is the point of highlighting the bad things about a player, manager or about a team?  These are not thoughts being expressed as a result of consequent anger over these developments these are the beliefs I have had all through Pulis’ tenure.  It is only now that it is relevant to make them known.

Before the events that unfolded today I was going into this season confident.  Dangerously confident perhaps in that I genuinely thought a challenge for a top 10 finish could be achievable but that a top 15 finish would be more realistic plus not directly being involved in a relegation battle.  Under Pulis we wouldn’t go down, no chance.  After all he had never been relegated, the squad we had finished 11^th and we have only improved that squad.  We have let some deadwood go to make way for some  very good additions with more still expected.  Brede Hangeland on a free, Fraizer Campbell for less than £1m and now Martin Kelly for £1m.  We have invested and will continue to do so.  We, as a club, will no doubt be bombarded by fellow football fans telling us that we will struggle to stay up now, we will have second season syndrome, no manager other than Pulis could keep us up, our chairman is deluded, how can we have let Pulis go blah blah blah.

Is it a major blow?  Yes absolutely.  Would I have liked Pulis to stay?  Yes absolutely.  Is it the end of the world?  No.  Can we still perform well like last season and stay up again?  Yes definitely.  I think the squad we have in place, and atmosphere and support the fans will play just as big a part as we played last season.  I think it will be more a case of the same and we will continue where we left off, not necessarily at Arsenal as we are always going to be expected to lose that but I am still confident as there is a togetherness at Palace and we will get by and support the new manager whoever he may be just as long as its not Neil Lennon!

After all, we are Crystal Palace NOT Crystal Pulis!