Can Steve Parish be blamed for refusing to spend after years of money troubles?
Friday 15 August 2014 12:42, UK
You know full well that when the first Premier League club parts company with their manager this season then one name will be linked straight away.
Tony Pulis will be top of the list. We’ll see him back sooner rather than later.
It’s well documented that there were problems between Steve Parish and Pulis at Crystal Palace, even before he agreed to go in there in the first place. His appointment was a very elongated, on-off affair.
Clearly over the past month, despite the success they’ve had, they’ve never seen eye to eye.
You have to put two and two together and assume that their lack of signings is what has caused this departure. They’ve got Brede Hangeland for free and Fraizer Campbell for less than a million, both of whom are good signings, but there’s been no great capital outlay. Tony wouldn’t have been willing to settle for another season of struggle.
One thing I can guarantee is that Tony won’t have anyone telling him which players to bring in.
Maybe his problem was that he did too well. Maybe the chairman said ‘look, we did great last season with these players, we won’t splash out and let’s do okay again’. I’m sure there’s an element of that and that’s not acceptable to Tony who is an ambitious, driven, focused man.
The squad will be disappointed but the players have all had a lot of managers. One goes, one comes in, get on with it. There will be some players who Tony didn’t fancy who can see this as an opportunity. Martin Kelly, who only joined on Thursday, will be disappointed but he’s still playing Premier League football.
We’re only guessing but this is a club that has been in administration twice in recent years, in huge financial difficulties. If Parish and the board have erred on the side of caution then you can understand why. They’ve been to the brink a couple of times before. He’s a fan and he’s seen it all, he’s seen what nearly happened to the club. They battled for survival.
You can’t point the finger of blame to either side because you just don’t know the ins and outs.
It will be a club in trouble that turns to Tony which is a shame because you’d like to see him build on the foundations he’s laid without having this reputation as helping troubled sides to survive.
New season
Soccer Saturday is back tomorrow with the boys... I suppose there’s always draw-backs in life.
I won’t get a word in edgeways on that show; six hours isn’t long enough. Everybody will be bursting to have their say, a hundred different things, we can only hope to get stuck into everything.
We’ll talk about Pulis and what’s happened at Southampton, who have had their guts ripped out. Will Liverpool do a Spurs? Will Louis van Gaal live up to the hype? Burnley have less money than Charlie Nicholas, so how will the new boys do?
Every season offers something different. Think back to the fantastic finish at Man City against QPR two seasons ago or Liverpool’s emergence and Manchester United’s decline last season.
Everton have become a threat to everyone, Spurs have spent huge amounts but gone nowhere. You never know what to expect!
The unpredictability is why I’m looking forward to it.
Soccer Saturday is on Sky Sports News HQ from midday followed by Saturday Night Football - Arsenal v Crystal Palace on Sky Sports 1 from 4,45pm.
