Alan Pardew: Crystal Palace sack manager with club 17th in Premier League

By Bashir

Thursday, December 22, 2016

 

Crystal Palace have sacked manager Alan Pardew with the club 17th in the Premier League.

Pardew was appointed on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January 2015 but the 55-year-old has been dismissed after a run of one victory in 11 games.
Palace have taken just 26 points from the 36 Premier League matches they have played in 2016 and are only one point above the relegation zone.
Former England boss Sam Allardyce is the bookmakers' favourite to take over.
"Personally I have a lot of good feelings for this football club and am sad that my time there has ended," said Pardew, who made more than 100 appearances for Palace as a player between 1987 and 1991 and led them to the FA Cup final last season.
"I feel that I have a special bond with the club and hope that hasn't been affected."
Chairman Steve Parish added: "During his tenure, Alan's hard work and dedication were without question. He has improved so many areas of the club."
Palace have yet to confirm who will take charge of the team for their league fixture at Watford on Boxing Day.

Eagles initially soared under Pardew

Pardew left Newcastle to take over at Selhurst Park after Neil Warnock was sacked with Palace in the relegation zone.
His appointment was a popular one with supporters and results improved as Palace went on to avoid the drop comfortably by finishing 10th, their best final position in the Premier League era.
It meant he became the first manager of a Premier League club to secure a top-half finish after being in the relegation places at Christmas.

FA Cup final sugar coated struggles

Pardew has been an FA Cup runner-up twice as a manager and once as a player

Palace started the 2015-16 season with impressive victories over Liverpool and Chelsea which prompted talk of qualifying for Europe.
However, Palace then endured a 14-game winless run in the Premier League between 19 December and 9 April and they finished 15th.
Those struggles were offset as Palace reached the FA Cup final for only the second time in their history, facing Manchester United at Wembley.
Palace took the lead through Jason Puncheon in the 78th minute, but goals from Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard saw United win 2-1.

Analysis

BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty
Alan Pardew's managerial career has always had an element of "boom and bust" - and his last 12 months at Crystal Palace have fallen into the latter category.
While club chairman Steve Parish was recently able to persuade Palace's American owners to give Pardew time, home defeats by Manchester United and Chelsea, albeit by narrow margins, meant they could keep faith no longer.
Pardew guided Palace to the FA Cup final in May, and even though he lost talisman Yannick Bolasie to Everton in a £25m deal last summer, he had to deliver once he was allowed to re-invest expensively on players such as Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend.
He has failed to do so, and with Palace lying only one point above the relegation places, the increasingly likelihood of Palace being dragged further into a fight to stay up means he has paid the price for his failings.

Tag : BBC-Football News