Either of us could be right; neither of us knows exactly how it works and how involved or uninvolved the Yanks are. I don't dispute you could be right, although it may also be that Harris was there to rubber-stamp a decision that Parish had already made rather than to impose one on him. What I think we would both agree would help is if the Yanks offered a great deal more clarity about both their day-to-roles in decision-making and their thinking about the future of their investment. We would ALL benefit from that. (I'd also rather you used the word "dislike" than "hatred". It's more accurate, albeit a semantic change.)

I dont think any other clubs board advertise their business, I think your expecting too much. The explosion of social media has led people to believe they should know everything that is going on, if they dont know they get frustrated and use there own interpretation.
One thing that is clear, Vieira had lost the faith of the board and it has been that way for sometime, eventually just ignoring them, that ends in only one outcome. He does appear to have a track record for this, shame as it all started off so well.

Edited by sydtheeagle (20 Mar 2023 8.46pm)

I think Hodgson would be a dangerous choice. I think the players will hate him being rehired.

Reading Joel Ward's remarks, that the firing of Vieira was "disappointing" is alarming. If the players still believed in Vieira, and think he was harshly treated, replacing him with a 75 year old who has such a negative approach to the game.

It might work, but 3 poor results against Leicester, Leeds and Saints (none look easy to me) would be catastrophic for morale.

Sacking Vieira was madness.

I will explain why I say that, (though I don't expect you to agree).

CPFC2010 saved the club. That's undeniable and all credit to them for it, but it was the action of an investor group, not an individual and not people (or a person) who knew how to run a football club.

Three of the four members of the investor group (including the two most successful ones) had no interest in running a football club; it's not how they made their money and, presumably, not what they saw themselves as being good at. So they handed over their money, saved the club, kept a low profile, and walked away when the opportunity to do so arose. You don't see the most successful investors make themselves CEOs of their acquisitions, do you? But Parish saw the floodlights shining down on him; he was the one with the ego, and in he stepped.

He hired Holloway and got lucky. We went up. Them, in the ensuing years twice, on the cusp of relegation, he hired competent, proven PL managers because he had little choice but to do so; Pulis and Allaredyce. Both saved us from going down. Both pointed to being able to take us forward. Both more or less then turned down the permanent job because they couldn't or didn't want to work with Parish.

He hired Pardew and, though some will pretend otherwise, a cup run in which the players (led by Jedi) largely managed themselves was followed by a year of first gradual and then rapid decline that almost ended (again) in disaster. Pardew had all of the qualities Parish values (Palace hero, yes man) and one of the qualities required of a successful football manager. So he brought in Roy to save us again, like Pardew largely because of a Palace connection and because he was malleable to the chairman's wishes. Roy is not one for standing up to chairmen or rocking the boat. Through his sheer competence and experience, Roy kept us afloat for two years. Wasn't much fun though, was it? Hardly what you'd call real progress. Saying that is not a criticism of Roy.

And then, once again, when Roy retired Parish couldn't find a credible manager willing to work with him. Nuno said "yes" but Parish wouldn't let him run things how he wanted to so he walked away. Favre said "no thanks". Vieira ended up with the job as third or fourth choice but it soon became obvious that he didn't really have Parish's support at all, nor did PV have any respect for Parish himself. Success on the pitch resulted in an uneasy truce for twelve months since which time a losing run and things have rapidly fallen apart.

And off the pitch? Endless talk of a rebuilt main stand for which money has apparently been earmarked (rather than being spent on the team when the team desperately needs investment) but not a brick has been laid in half a decade. Spurs have built the best stadium in Europe in that time. A few bits of plasterboard around the ground renaming the odd bar and a nice bit of modern art to celebrate Maxi Jazz. In short, same matchday experience I've always known but with a fresh coat of paint here and there. Oh, and a bit of new leatherette in the lounges and an executive chef to benefit the corporate crowd plus some "slick" marketing on social media to try to separate you from a bit more of your money in the club shop. Unrecognizable? Parish's Palace is the one I've known since boyhood. We've had fifty years of egotistical hucksters running the club - Bloye, Noades, Goldberg, Jordan, and now Parish. I'd say that outside of saving the club (yes, once again thank you), where we are now - in a relegation battle with an outdated ground - is all too recognizable. Only the academy and I DO give Parish credit for that, represents real and substantive progress.

I've been expressing the above view more or less since Parish started running the show his way so I'm not remotely surprised at the wreckage we're in now. It's a familiar story for any Palace fan. The only difference is that it's taken Parish ten years to be exposed where it happened to Goldberg, for instance, in barely two. But the danger has always been there because in the end mismanagement results in failure and the endgame we've now reached was inevitable.

Parish doesn't know how to run a football club. It's that simple. He may know how to save one, but he doesn't know how to run one. He's proved it time and time again. So did you really think it was going to end well?

I don't expect you to agree with any of the above but I thought you might as well understand why I said what I did.

The football over the last few months has been the absolute worst since we’ve been promoted so to complain about Roy being the temporary manager seems a touch ironic.

That said I’ve got my doubts that anybody will get enough goals out of this group to keep us up and it would be a shame if he ends up with his fingerprints on our relegation. He’s got very little to gain IMO.

At the expense of repeating others now’s the time to get behind the team and help the players.

Well it looks Roy and Ray are back and Paddy promoted to be alongside. Even though we got hammered on Sunday, Paddy sounded like the real deal. Wouldn't surprise me if we go down but Paddy charged with bringing us up again with some good talent from the academy, especially those out on loan. Time for some old fashioned pragmatism, loyal support and a little bit of luck and divine inspiration until the end of the season.

The club need some changes at the top though in the summer, whatever the final outcome, in order to progress.

It’s happening , what more worrying is this season could be so terrible it would, the only thing you could do would be to laugh,
Brighton Win FA Cup and qualify for champions league
We get relegated
Millwall win play offs and be promoted

I genuinely wouldn’t know if I would cry or laugh ,

Once the snowball starts rolling and there's nothing to hold it back... We have arrived at that moment. All the red flags were there.
Let's imagine Roy is reinstated, two things can happen - we avoid the drop or we are relegated. What then? These two things can happen with or without Roy, could be anyone. It's pissing in the wind to cover up Parish's mismanagement.
Common denominator between the club and Holloway, Pulis, Pardew, Allerdyce, FdB, Hodgson, Vieira? Anyone I missed?

In fairness a long standing respected player at the club is hardly going to say publicly that the dressing room was having a party over the decision, especially when there is often an element of player involvement in the decision either directly or indirectly -

There has to be more to this and the rumours around the coaches and his tendency to go AWOL must have some substance I feel.

It’s interesting that all the pundits have come out saying it’s a bad/risky decision. You have to think people in the business will have been told what if anything has been going on behind the scenes.

The idea that playing Royball will not get goals. In the last season of Roy we scored 50 goals with 46 against. We have at present 21. The lack of goals is not entirely down to missed chances. We haven't, for some time managed to create chances from open play and this has been down, to a large part, of not having a midfield which can function. Can rarely put more than 3 passes together, don't seem to break their neck to get up the field in support of the front players. I have watched games where there is 30 yards between the defence and midfield a and similar distance to the forwards. There is no compactness in our build up, so if we only get TWO chances in a game it was vital we score both. This is down to coaching. we have been a shambles for some time and the answer seemed to be just to the same with different formations till it works. Well it didn't.