With this wave of optimism, is disaster just around the corner; or have CPFC2010 finally broken the Palace mould, asks Neil Peters.
With promotion and back to back mid-table finishes in the last three seasons, Crystal Palace appear to be on an upward trajectory. The return of prodigal son Wilfried Zaha, the rise to prominence of bargain buys such as Yannick Bolasie and a proper manager, one of our own in Super Al, splashing the cash on proven international talent in Yohann Cabaye, optimism has never been higher. Ian Wright is saying that we’ll win a cup and Pardew quoted as saying that we can beat anyone outside the top 5.
So disaster is just around the corner, right?
Every Palace fan that has followed the club for more than 5 years know that every minor high is followed by a spectacular fall from grace.
The “Team of the 80s”, promoted in ‘79 was relegated in ’81.
The first Steve Coppell team of Wright, Bright and Thomas got promoted in ’89, got to the cup final, then won the Zenith Cup and finished 3rd in 1991. By 1993 the team packed full of England international was broken up and relegated.
Even more recently Neil Warnock took Palace into the play-offs in 2008. By 2009-10 the club was plunged into administration. We sold star players Jose Fonte and Victor Moses to keep the coffers ticking over, deducted 10 points and the club survived a history ending relegation by the skin of its teeth.
Enter CPFC2010; the consortium lead by Steve Parish took the club out of administration and into a new era. There were problems, of course; but something had changed. Every time the club hit the buffers, instead of being derailed, they improved.
The first managerial appointment was George Burley but by Christmas we were flirting with relegation. Dougie Freedman was promoted to manager, kept the club up and the following season stabilised the league position. Then in 2012-13 season, the team exploded out of the blocks, racing to the top of the league, things could not be better. But inexplicably in October, club hero Freedman walked out on the club where he was loved to join Bolton Wanderers.
The next 4 managerial appointments follow a similar pattern:
Holloway took the club up and then seemed to have a complete meltdown and resigned a year to the day after Freedman left, leaving the club rock bottom of the Premier League.
Pulis, a Premier League miracle worker defied all belief and took the team from 20th to 11th in 6 months.
We thought we’d found our long term manager at last, but Pulis walked out in spectacular style on the eve of 2014/15 season. This should have derailed the club, but Neil Warnock came in as a steadying hand before Alan Pardew took over the reins and lead the club to our highest league position for the best part of a quarter of a century.
So what next for Palace? I don’t think we’ve had 3 good seasons in a row since I’ve supported them, let alone 4. My instinct is that disaster will strike, Pardew will walk out, Bolasie will be sold to Spurs and Cabaye will be an injury prone flop.
But maybe, just maybe, Mr Parish and Co, having asked Palace fans to stop thinking like Palace fans may have hit on a winning formula.