Saturday’s improved performance versus West Brom led the majority of the Valley faithful to return home in a justified better mood. The debut of Youga, the balance him and Basey provided down the left, coupled with the attacking energy Moutaoakil provided down the right led to an improved thrust to the side.
However, the widely reported comment of the manager towards the crowd would appear as ill-timed as a Kevin Muscat tackle
Let’s get a few things clear, from his very first game in charge 13 months ago, Alan Pardew has on the whole had tremendous personal backing from the crowd. His name has been sung in much more vigour than any other previous manager, including the highly successful Curbishley. Yet he has publicly shown little appreciation to that by saying he'd rather the players’ names were sung than his. Of course he is right, but knowing a crowd is publicly supportive of the manager is a rare commodity these days, and should not be dismissed lightly.
He has also expressed concern with us as supporters appreciating ex-players.
‘We’re a club that’s a bit too friendly to returning players’ he was quoted as saying after Saturday’s draw.
However, his problem doesn’t seem to stretch to outside the confines of The Valley though.
"The fans at Palace have always been very kind to me in the past. I will certainly be giving them a wave and I'm sure the Charlton fans wouldn't begrudge me that" he said before the September clash at Selhurst, whilst after the game
"I enjoy coming back here, I always get a nice reception and the fans are brilliant.”
Well Alan, you’re wrong on both accounts.
We don't as a whole appreciate ex-players. Ask Defoe, Parker, Murphy, Pitcher and Cole for examples of our cuddly, friendly nature.
What we appreciate are ex-players who dedicated various combinations of time, commitment and performance to our club, whilst not criticising or abusing the privilege in the process. In the instance of Kiely, it was through performance, in Lisbie’s case, it was through time.
But largely it is commitment that is appreciated, and it is one of those things that make our little club special, the bond between supporters and appreciated ex-players, and Kiely had commitment by the bucket-load and deserved every second of his ovation.
It is down to our current players to ensure ex-players have a difficult afternoon, not those in the stands.
And no Alan, as a little reminder ahead of our forthcoming clash, we don’t appreciate you waxing lyrical about former clubs, particularly when they happen to be the club we despise the most. There will be plenty of opportunities to go wave and pull a Selhurst plonker when you manage elsewhere in your career, but for now, please show a little respect for those that are currently singing your name and calling you ‘Sooper’. You would not speak cutely about Millwall when you were at West Ham, so please be sensitive to our views as well.
The dig about how few fans turned up was hardly endearing either. These home fans Alan have seen just 2 home wins in ten, from a side widely tipped to dominate this division. We have under-performed repeatedly at home against sides in the bottom half of the division, and have been run ragged by players previously not good enough to get into our team.
We do not have the best support in the land, we would admit that ourselves, but unsupportive comments from our manager will do little to improve the situation.
We have a massive month coming up and we need to be united and move on together to bring success. Now is the time to get the fans onside, not alienate them.
Because like ex-players, biting the hand that feeds you never brings the right response. Appreciation works both ways.
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Comments
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I stand by the thrust of the piece though to be honest. No one could of been more supportive than me of Pardew since he has been here, i give 100% backing throughout the game and generally try to put a positive spin on my articles.
But there is part of me that thinks, rightly or wrongly, that Pardew believes we are a bit 'below him' and it frustrates me a touch. We are what we are, and i wish he would embrace it and us a little bit more.
:D
One thing I do like is that he's usually very expressive straight after games, rather than just trot out tedious safe cliches from which we can learn nothing. Comfortingly, I even find myself agreeing quite often, which isn't always the case, even with a proven manager. He does appear in general to have a good fans' perspective, even if at times he's just being particularly shrewd and telling us what we want to hear.
Quite right though AFKA, no place round here for chummy references to Palarse.
Very close to my own thoughts on this faux pas by Pardew.