Succession planning is almost impossible. Let's say your current manager is in place but may retire in the next 2 years so you have a shortlist ready for that day:

1. You have your eye on a young up and coming manager so far he looks great, then he has a mare and you lose interest in him.

2. An experienced manager has indicated he is interested and so are you. Come the day and you realise that he used your interest to get a new contract or he has recently started another job or he was just full of BS and never wanted to some to Palace. (Dyche)

3. Manager interviewed goes away to think about it and we are gazumped by another PL club (Howe going to Burnley).

And so on.

To sum up Parish probably has a short list which will change with the fortunes of those on it. None of this mean anything until you actually have a vacancy at which point you may discover that none of your preferred names are available for whatever reason.

I suspect that something like this has happened so now we need a new shortlist.

Edited by Badger11 (14 Jun 2021 9.05am)

Edited by Badger11 (14 Jun 2021 9.07am)

One more point

To err is human and, therefore, Parish has made mistakes. He admitted some in WED.

Like others, I'm glad he's a Palace fan and believe he wants the best for our club.

Also like others, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at the apparent lack of progress on the manager front. How much of that is down to Parish? I don't know.

As for the player contract situation. we've spent the last four years trying to survive on seasoned pros with relatively short shelf lives, purportedly due to financial constraints. We started trying to move forward from that last summer but frustratingly our two young arrivals have suffered serious injuries which have increased our player recruitment needs.

The O.P. has a fair point, and this should be a forum for an exchange of views without feeling that there are only certain things that are allowed to be said.
Steve Parish saved the club in 2010 and Palace fans must obviously be grateful for that. But that doesn't mean that it is a well run club or that the present situation of no manager and so many contracts up isn't unfortunate. Just because a man is brilliant at running an Advertising agency or whatever he did to make his money doesn't mean that he must be a brilliant club Chairman. There is a reticence about opening the chequebook in the Transfer market that suggests we are a club run on the cheap. Perhaps it's time to hand over the baton- if someone else can be found to take over the liability- or did I mean to write 'responsibility'?

The never blame Parish disease has been in existence for many years now on the various Palace sites.
His inexperience was a fair excuse for mistakes in the early days but he has had a long time to understand how football works or employ people who do.

It is fair to say that his record speaks for itself in terms of promotion and keeping us up, but one cannot help but feel that his over careful attitude and occasional naivety has also held us back at times.

If he sorts out the contract issues and signs some quality players this Summer, which keeps us up once again, then he will get my vote going forward.
I would also add that the new stand marathon needs sorting out and soon.

Really? Like who? We already have 2 billionaire owners and a mutual millionaire. What makes you think things would be better under new ownership.
Apart from Man City and Chelsea, who has been taken over and seen the fortunes of their club charge for the better?

It's hard to know how much the Americans interfere with the decision making. It does appear that Palace are very poor at making quick decisions. Is it all down to Parish as the op suggests? I think not, but totally agree that Parish has to take his share of the criticism.

The club need to do a huge amount better from here on or our run in the top league will end next year