December 30 2014

Alan Pardew

Like most Eagles supporters, Jamesey was less than enthusiastic about Alan Pardew's footballing prowess but wishes him the best of luck as new Palace manager.

Well, it's not totally cut and dried as yet but I think we can safely assume that Palace Old Boy, Alan Pardew, will be at the Selhurst helm very soon.

Longer-toothed supporters like me will remember (only just), Alan's arrival at Selhurst in 1987. The midfielder was bought for a fee of £7500 and was a fairly regular member of Steve Coppell's squad in the late '80s.

Alan was not all that popular with the fans during that period but, in fairness to him, any journeyman midfielder was unlikely to stand out among the flowering stars who graced the red-white-and-blue colours of that era. It would have been difficult to stand out very prominently among a collection of players which included Ian Wright, Mark bright, Geoff Thomas and Andy Gray. And that's only for starters.

So Alan did his industrious best and was instrumental in helping us get back into the old First Division in 1989.

His true moment of glory which most older supporters will remember with pride was his winning goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park in 1990.

In a game where calling us "underdogs" would have been blatant flattery, Palace defied logistics and, after a first half which pretty well looked like the end of our cup run, came thundering back into the game, and booked a ticket to Wembley with Alan's winning goal making it 4-3 to the Eagles.

Thus came the tag "Supa-Al" and he went on to feature in the 1990 FA Cup Final (a draw) and replay (a Man U 1-0 victory). For younger supporters, a "replay" is what happened after a knock-out competition draw in those distant days before penalty shoot-outs were invented.

Alan stayed at Selhurst for four years and in 1991 moved in an easterly direction to Charlton Athletic, winding up his playing career at Reading in 1998, a club where he made his first foray into management in 1999.

In his managerial career to date, Alan managed at West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and Newcastle and, it must be said, was neither outstanding or terrible at any of them.

I always followed Alan's exploits, as most of us do with any football manager with a Palace connection, with mild interest and he did seem to have a penchant for opening his mouth and putting his foot in it (how I love mixed metaphors!) or getting involved with pitch-side incidents.

His time in the north-east seemed dogged by dissent with the chairman and the Geordies had little time for Alan, to put it mildly.

Some say that he was never accepted because he was a "southern jessie" and that the north-east only likes its own. Perhaps there is an element of truth there, although the cult hero status of Malcolm McDonald and Kevin Keegan probably give the lie to this.

Forgive me for putting words into his mouth but Alan would probably say that Newcastle supporters had higher expectations than he was able to provide due to lack of funds and board disagreements.

I was amused to read an anecdote which may well be apocryphal after the death of former Palace chairman Ron Noades just over a year ago.

Alan was working as a semi-pro footballer and glazier (his original line of work) when he was approached by Palace. He reckoned that the deal he was offered by Ron Noades involved a pay cut which seems unbelievable considering that within a couple of seasons he was playing football at the nation's highest level.

Anyhow, Alan smiled and went along with that slap in the face and proceeded to carve out a creditable career as a footballer and manager.

I am sure every Eagles supporter will wish him all the luck in the world, starting with a barnstorming campaign to keep us in the Premier League. Pull that off, and he might even be "Supa-Al" again...

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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