April 9 2002

Crystal Palace

Palace are usually challenging for promotion or fighting releagtion, but not this season and Jamesey is bored with mid-table obscurity...

What an odd situation for a Palace fan to be in. No fears of relegation, no realistic hopes of promotion and 11th in the table, as I write.

Well and truly in the doldrums. Mind you, I am not too distressed about the play-off position. As I have said before in this column, the squad with our current manager in the Premiership would be like dropping a stickleback into a tankful of piranhas.

The events of the past two years have been a topsy-turvy ride even by Palace standards. I coughed up my cheque for the supporters’ trust when we were under the administrators in 99-00 and then hoped like hell that Jerry Lim or some other shadowy figure would save us from the Goldberg/Venables apocalypse.

I am not normally an outwardly emotional person but the thought of Palace dying would have been like suffering the loss of a dearly loved lifetime partner.

Then to brush away our tears, along came Simon Jordan and one of the biggest "ups" in my Palace-supporting history. Millionaire, Palace fan from a local boyhood, entrepreneur...in short the chairman every football supporter dreams of.

Mr Jordan's halo took a large dent when Steve Coppell left in curious circumstances and the appointment of Alan Smith, like most of us, totally mystified me.

I had hoped to have seen the last of him in '95. (I can only assume that, like Trevor Francis, Mr Smith was better at talking himself up at interviews than actually managing a team?).

As we all know Mr Smith’s management expertise resulted in our just missing our first spell of third-tier football in 30 years. Well it was exciting but the sort of excitement I can do without.

I was neutral about the appointment of Steve Bruce but naturally warmed to him with some enthusiasm when his entertaining and attacking football took us to the Number One spot, from where his successor has gradually distanced us.

So the Jordan era so far has seen us sack an idol, nearly get relegated, go to top spot within a few months and then subside to mid-table mediocrity. It's very boring and I’m just not used to it!