Crystal Palace's American investment puts Alan Pardew in tight spot as spells of boom and bust plague boss again

Feeling the heat: Alan Pardew
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James Olley25 November 2016

It appeared at one stage that Alan Pardew was the past, present and future of Crystal Palace. The former player with a permanent place in the club’s folklore courtesy of his winner in their 1990 FA Cup semi-final victory over Liverpool returned to Selhurst Park and immediately galvanised an ailing squad.

Ten wins from 18 matches catapulted Palace from 18th in the Premier League to 10th — their highest ever Premier League finish — and the about-turn in fortunes helped chairman Steve Parish revive a deal to bring in American investors to help transform Palace into a major force.

Parish gave an interview to this newspaper last November in which he outlined how talks had stalled at the beginning of 2015 with manager Neil Warnock departed and their top-flight status uncertain.

The remarkable transformation Pardew instigated helped convince Josh Harris and David Blitzer to part with an initial cash injection of £50million in return for a 36 per cent stake — shared equally between the pair — and triggering what Parish described as a “10-year” acceleration in the club’s plans.

Pardew was central to that development. He worked closely behind the scenes on improving the club’s infrastructure and developing the academy setup while work quickly began on developing a stadium not short on charm but badly in need of modernisation.

Parish was adamant at the time that he would retain the final say on all major business decisions but given the importance of Premier League football to both the club’s future and the role it played in bringing Harris and Blitzer on board, the team’s current form must place Pardew in a precarious position.

Pardew was backed to an unprecedented level in the transfer market this summer. Yannick Bolasie’s departure to Everton helped balance the books but Christian Benteke’s £32.5m arrival from Liverpool was a huge statement of support not entirely explainable by the increase in income from the League’s new television deal alone.

Five of the players who started Saturday’s defeat against Manchester City were signed on Pardew’s watch (including Wilfried Zaha on a permanent basis just after he arrived) and the team’s alarming slump raises a familiar question whether he is a manager capable of stabilising a team but not developing one.

Spells of boom and bust plagued Pardew at Newcastle and West Ham and he has the same case to answer at Palace. After taking charge in January 2015, only six teams earned more Premier League points (63) than Palace in the calendar year.

In 2016, they have taken just 22 points from 31 games including only five wins — no team in England’s top four divisions has a worse points-per-game ratio (0.71).

Parish and Pardew share a strong working relationship but there will come a point when Harris and Blitzer — not to mention sections of the club’s support — will begin to question the team’s immediate direction.

Saturday’s trip to Swansea, a home game against Southampton and another away day at Hull offer Pardew some hope of arresting a decline of five straight defeats; a sizeable points return is essential given a challenging festive fixture list that includes games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Pardew’s commitment to attacking football is one of his admirable traits, helping to maintain momentum and confidence when his team is in form and leading to sporadic suggestions he could one day manage England. Yet in moments such as this, it seems an obvious weakness.

“Anyone who knows the way I manage, I like my teams to be on the front foot and score goals, so clean sheets have never been my top priority,” he said this month.

Maybe they should be. Palace have kept just 10 clean sheets in the League since he took charge — that figure is also the fewest among English football’s 92 professional clubs. The fact no Premier League team has conceded more goals from set-pieces (nine) hints at an organisational problem which must be addressed on the training ground.

It is this column’s hope that Pardew succeeds in reviving Palace’s fortunes, not least because his failure would be another blow to the ranks of English managers in Premier League employment, but time is against him.

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