September 18 2017

Steve Parish

In an exclusive chat with our Radio team, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has admitted he was wrong about the appointment of Frank de Boer as manager.

Parish gave up a few hours of his time last night to answer fans' questions in our live radio show.

The Palace supremo has been under fire for his decision to axe former Barcelona star Frank de Boer as manager of the Eagles after only four Premier League games in charge.

Parish admitted the mistake but refrained from apologising for it.

"As a club we got it wrong and as a chairman I got it wrong with Frank.

"But I am never going to apologise for taking a risk and trying to improve this club.

"If I make mistakes in doing it, then I will hold my hands up. But I am not going to apologise. The road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions.

"I can understand people thinking four games is not enough but results were not good. Frank was here from July 1 and in the end I did not think it was going to work.

"It could have gone on longer but if that then produced the outcome I thought it was going to, then that makes me negligent."

Speaking about certain fans suggestion that Parish should walk from the club, after what was regarded as a poor transfer window, and the mess over the manager appointment he said: "People honestly say they want to write off the past seven years because of where we are now.

"I see people saying, ‘it is time to go now’. It is kind of an Alan Curbishley moment if you’re not careful.

"Am I happy with where we are now? No. But am I about to be thrown off course by half-truths, vitriol and people who know one per cent of the facts and are completely irrational in their criticism?

"Nobody likes the records but the only thing that matters is where we are at the end of the season. We have to try to get ourselves out of it."

In responding to criticism from former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer on BBC's Match of the Day programme, where he said the appointment of De Boer "smacked of a chairman not doing any homework whatsoever", Parish replied: "I am not going to write off the past seven years as a failure because [of] Alan Shearer.

"We possibly agonised over it too much and it was almost muddled thinking. The blueprint that Dougie Freedman, Mile Jedinak and Damien Delaney laid down for us as a club about this togetherness is what we must maintain.

"If there is one lesson we have learned over the past seven years it is that we have to fight.

"When we get ahead of ourselves and think we are better than we are, we can come unstuck a little bit. That is probably the lesson I have got to learn."

"We want to get better but we have got to walk before we can run. Maybe I am guilty of being impatient but I am never going to apologise for trying to improve us."

Parish also responded to fans' reactions over the failure to sign a backup striker to Christian Benteke in the transfer window, and he felt that the club shouldn't have let Fraizer Campbell go in the summer.

Parish said: "I agree we should have signed a striker. But they [the fans] are going to have to let it go.

"We are where we are. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world. We have got one striker and we are going to have to make do with that until January.

"It was a very difficult market and it did not go right in the end. I would personally not have let Fraizer Campbell go and that is something I wish I had overruled [De Boer] on.

"Fraizer struggled for goals at times but he came on, made a difference and gave us an option."

Listen to the full interview with Steve Parish.

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