This thread has picked up a fair bit of speed for a subject with no substance behind it whatsoever.

Excellent post Syd. That's basically how I see him as well.

The more interesting thing to me is that Southgate seems to have little connection with Palace since his departure. You know, there are plenty of former players who clearly identify with the club even if they were here for only a portion of their career (Darren Ambrose is a good example). But Southgate rarely talks about Palace, he clearly doesn't see us as a fond part of his career, he doesn't pick our players at all even when they're good enough (AWB is the obvious example), so other than the fact that he played a few games for us once, there's really no reason to think he'd want to come back to Palace even if was intending to move into club management. My guess is that if anything, Southgate has negative memories of the club. Remember, he was (and still is) very, very close to Alan Smith whose departure from Palace was acrimonious to say the least. In 1994/95 when it all fell apart, Southgate was very much a bystander while his mentor was (arguably) sold down the river by the chairman. That can't have enamoured him to the club. So personally, I think the Southgate to Palace idea is a non-starter for many reasons that go beyond just the fact that it's invented speculation anyway.

Edited by sydtheeagle (23 Jun 2021 11.07am)

Edited by sydtheeagle (23 Jun 2021 11.07am)

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

It's strange though because that's revisionist history. Southgate's first year, the atmosphere was fantastic. We stormed to promotion scoring goals at pace. The following year in the Prem was "difficult" but we reached the semi-finals of both Cups and we weren't out of the fight to stay up until late on. If you were at either Cup Semi final it's laughable to say we didn't have support. Again, the atmosphere most of that season, until Chris sparked up and Alan and Ron fell out, was great and if it became toxic later on, it was still atmospherically so. Bottom line is that for whatever reason, players from those years don't collectively seem to have much fondness for the club possibly excepting Richard Shaw. By the way, not that it's remotely relevant, but Eddie McGoldrick is coaching at the University of Northampton these days, if anyone cares.

Edited by sydtheeagle (23 Jun 2021 4.46pm)

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

There was a lot going on behind closed doors that season, some of which I was more aware of than average but obviously some not. "ITK" is always a qualified term. In brief, my read based on what I know is that when Alan Smith took over from Coppell, it gave us continuity and, as it turned out, it was an extremely good hire. That first season in the Championship he bedded in a lot of younger players (Southgate, Ricky Newman, Dean Gordon, Cookie, and on the fringes Bobby Bowry and others) with considerable success. Smith was a father figure to a lot of those guys as he'd developed their careers over a long period from youth to first team at Palace and that team was extremely loyal to him personally, not the club itself. They still are. Southgate and Smith remain close even now, all those years later.

The start (1-6 vs. Liverpool) of the season after promotion was tough but in October and November, hallmarked by the 4-1 win away at Coventry (anyone remember Ricky Newman's rocket goal?) followed by a comfortable win over Ipswich at home plus progress in the League Cup saw us move up the table and things looked pretty rosy. Then, Chris Armstrong had his spliff, Noades and Smith fell out spectacularly over a wide range of issues, and over the Christmas and January period the running of the club came apart at the seams.

Smith and Noades were both high-maintenance, big-ego personalities and in his handling of the situation over various issues, Noades got things very, very wrong (like him or not, Noades mostly got the tough calls right but this one he didn't). Basically, unfair as it would have been he should have fired Smith because as a chairman if you're not going to back your manager then you're asking for trouble if you keep him around. But noting the supporters generally loved Smith as much as the players did, Noades left him in place while, destructively, undermining and briefing against him behind the scenes and in the media. This created an absolutely toxic atmosphere within the club, and a group of players totally loyal to the manager but not the club itself. Predictably, with that sort of working environment, in the end we went down even though in my view we were (just about) good enough to stay up. Noades carries a fair amount of the blame for that. More than Smith.

After relegation, the club changed radically. Smith left and a lot of players left with him; a new generation (Dougie, Hopkin, then Andy Roberts) and others arrived that summer. And all-in-all, we emerged successful again getting promoted back to the Premiership a couple of years later. We bought shrewdly; I remember the first pre-season game away at Dean Court; it was immediately obviously that Hoppy and Dougie, neither of whom was really a "big name" signing, were class. That was Noades all over; he knew how find quality in the lower divisions or at a low price.

But it all needn't have happened if Noades and Smith had resolved their differences, got on the same page, and the chairman had supported the manager the season before. Truth is, if that had happened, with the young players we had (proved by the careers many of them subsequently had elsewhere) we'd probably have become an embedded Premier League side a lot earlier than we did.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

all you need to do is watch, or remember the 93-94 season review, and you will understand how good he was as a player, he carries that team as a kid.

the goal against pompey will always be one of my favourites alongside AJ’s van bastan effort at walsall away.

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway