Time for Palace to turn over a new leaf

It was only a couple of months later in the campaign last season that Palace found themselves in this exact situation - in a relegation scrap and without a manager.

At least the new manager that comes in this season has the chance to bring in their own players and lay down their mark, meaning it's not all bad news for Palace.

After seeing Palace fail to win any of their four games in December, which included a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest and the disappointing draw at Bristol City in which the Robins equalised in the last-minute, Burley had a good opportunity to enter Palace folklore with a New Years day victory at Millwall.

However, it’s never as easy as that when you’re a Palace fan and a Jason Puncheon hat-trick ensured Eagles fans would travel home red-faced and saying they were slightly angry would be an understatement.

So it was no surprise that rumours were confirmed after the loss at the New Den that Burley’s tenure at Selhurst Park had come to an abrupt end and I salute the decision.

Since the pre-season loss to Chelsea at Selhurst Park, the first opportunity I had to see Burley’s team play, I always had doubts about the Scotsman’s passion for Palace, which I believe eventually ensured his reign in south London would be very unsuccessful.

In Burley’s defence, it was never going to be an easy task for him when the squad he inherited was very thin and a number of out-of-contract players such as captain Shaun Derry and Clint Hill leaving the club didn’t help matters much either.

Forgetting the players that left the Eagles during the summer, George Burley still managed to form a formidable squad which included Edgar Davids - although the Dutch veteran failed to make any impact whatsoever and left the club after only seven starts, keeping his reputation in tact.

Another signing Burley instrumented was the free transfer of Andy Dorman from St Mirren, a player of whom I have been extremely disappointed with.

Being described as a playmaker, I was expecting the Welshman to be pulling the strings for a fairly young squad, but instead it is a weekly occurrence that I sit in the Holmesdale stand scratching my head every time Dorman miscontrolls the ball or over hits a simple pass.

No disrespect to the Scottish league but Dorman’s performance in the Championship this season shows the gap in talent between the Scottish league and the Championship, let alone the Premiership.

Having said this, with the Eagles only recently coming out of administration, Burley was under a strict budget in both wages and transfer fees and was therefore relying on free transfers and loan-signings.

The loan signings Burley bought to Palace were both hit-and-miss, with Alex Marrow and James Vaughan pleasing signings but Anthony Gardner and Julian Bennett more of the opposite, having not been able to hold down regular starting berths in the squad.

Another disappointing factor was the lack of consistency that Burley showed when choosing Paddy McCarthy’s partner, choosing between Gardner, Claude Davis or Adam Barrett every three games.

But it’s all well and good for Palace fans to look for reasons to why Burley’s reign was so unsuccessful in south London, with the most important factor being that Palace now find themselves in a situation where they need to hire their fourth manager in less than two seasons.

As usual, when a vacancy becomes available at Palace, former players such as Chris Coleman and Gareth Southgate are mentioned as suitable candidates, along with ex-boss Steve Coppell, recently sacked Chris Hughton and caretaker boss Dougie Freedman.

Freedman would have done his chances no harm after a 1-0 victory in Monday’s six-pointer against bottom club Preston, although my gut feeling is that Freedman should wait a little longer to take the helm at Palace having had little experience in management so far.

But who should take charge of Palace?

Honestly, I’m not too sure myself.

I don’t believe it should be Coleman, with the Welshman more-or-less failing at all three of his previous management roles at Fulham, Real Sociedad and Coventry respectively.

I also find it hard to see why Southgate would want to quit his television roles and risk his CV by getting involved in a potential relegation scrap.

So in the list I gave above, I believe it’s out of Steve Coppell and Chris Hughton, with co-chairman Steve Parish confirming he will have talks with Coppell and ask his opinion on who the most suitable candidate is.

Along with confirming Coppell talks, Steve Parish also highlighted the fact that he hoped to bring in a manager before the weekend, in which Palace travel to Coventry in the FA Cup.

With the transfer window open until the end of January, I believe that if Palace make the right choice at the second time of asking then the manager can come in and make the difference that Burley failed to do.

But it seems to be my luck that whenever I show optimism, Palace's situation seems to worsen so I’m keeping my opinions close to my chest.

For now though, I hope the result on Monday could be the start to something new and with debutant Steffen Iversen securing the important win, hopefully the Norwegian can start banging in the much needed goals and help keep Palace in the division.

Fingers crossed!

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here