Crystal Palace's hara-kiri moment

Far away from the microscopic scrutiny that is usually reserved for teams vying for Premiership honours, a bunch of teams fight out their own quite battle; a battle of survival. The struggle to avoid the relegation zone and subsequent drop to the lower rung of the club football hierarchy is quite fascinating indeed. The bottom 3 positions keep changing hands throughout the season, and who goes down is anybody’s guess until the final day; quite similar to what happens at the other end of the table. The 2013-14 season of the English Premier League also saw a very tightly fought battle in the bottom half, with the threat of relegation looming over as many as 9 teams at one point in time. One highlight of the entire relegation saga and indeed of the entire 2013-14 season is the amazing way in which Crystal Palace turned around a miserable first half of their campaign which was mostly spent rooted to the bottom, to finish 11th. And if credit for the same were to be given to one person, it has to be their brilliant ex-manager Tony Pulis.

When the baseball cap sporting Pulis took over from Ian Holloway in November 2013, a lot of people had already written off The Eagles, and they seemed condemned to a season in the Championship. But enterprising Welshman would have nothing of that mindset, and quickly went about the task of ensuring Premier League safety. He oversaw a busy January transfer window, bringing in 5 players that added defensive mettle to the team. Puncheon, a January signing , added intent to his strikeforce, and scored a total of 7 goals that were instrumental in a run of 5 consecutive victories that not only ensured safety, but also a strong 11th placed finish. One of the teams they defeated was Chelsea, at Selhurst Park, which prompted Jose Mourinho to personally congratulate the Palace squad. Tony Pulis’ messianic intervention got him the title of Manager of the month for April 2014 and also Premier League manager of the year.
This is not the first time that Pulis has taken a team at its nadir and transformed them into a winning squad. His work at Stoke city is also the stuff of legends, where he guided the team to the Premier League and from there on to a top half finish and an FA Cup final appearance . He has proven beyond doubt his uncanny knack of turning around weak teams into competitive units.

It therefore came as a shock to many when Crystal Palace announced that they had parted ways with their super-manager days before the2014-15 season began, purportedly over issues regarding Pulis’ limited say in transfer related business. The decision is completely inexplicable and lacks even a modicum of logic, particularly at such a crucial juncture where Pulis could actually have lead the club to greater heights in the Premier League campaign. Given the absolutely shoddy way in which Crystal Palace went about their business in the first half of the 2013-14 season, it goes without saying that the Eagles were not in a position to anger Pulis in the least, let alone driving him out of the club. Indeed, one can only rue the premature demise of what promised to be a very fruitful season for Crystal Palace, and hope that the new manager is able to at least sustain, if not build upon, the fairy tale that was Tony Pulis’ Crystal Palace.