OUR columnist and Crystal Palace fan ALEX WHITE embraced the appointment of Neil Warnock - but he now fears the worst...
I consider myself largely positive and upbeat when it comes to Palace, and often, like many, foolishly have blind faith in us to be successful.
Take last season for example. If you read my columns, even under the stewardship of Ian Holloway, I believed in our ability to stay up and showed what seemed at the time misplaced loyalty. For the first time in a while I would now say that I am worried, I'm not saying it's time to hit the panic button but if we continue on the current path, playing in the Championship next year is a distinct possibility.
At the start of this season I was under no illusions that this would be a tough, long campaign, especially after being abandoned by our previous manager three days before the season kicked off. What is making me fear for us now is seeing players who we know can more than comfortably play and compete at this standard, struggling. As a club, I think reaching the standard of football and gaining results like we did last season is a tough ask, but a dramatic drop in form and apparent lack of confidence shouldn't happen this quickly should it?
So, who is to blame for this downturn and stumble in progression? An unfortunate run of fixtures against top clubs, inconsistent and poor refereeing decisions as the manager might suggest? The players certainly have to hold their hands up and admit standards have dropped, regardless of the tactics or who is managing. They need to stand up and take some responsibility.
Can we look at the chairman and question his position in how and why Tony Pulis left? I think most fans would agree we would be far more comfortable at this time of the season if he had stayed on. Ultimately though, Pulis walked and that's reality, we have to accept it unfortunately and move on. To point the finger at the chairman would seem pretty harsh to me.
That leaves one man who I think most people would point the finger at – the manager.
I called upon the Palace fans to back the Neil Warnock following his appointment, I would've done whoever the man be as we pride ourselves on positive motivation regardless of if we agree or not. We couldn't change the fact Neil had been appointed so we embraced it.
But we're now at the point in the season where the next few games could be crucial, I wasn't expecting Warnock to pull up trees and surprise everyone but I wasn't expecting to see some of the things I have either. I think both Neil and the club have shown so much naivety since his arrival, some of the decisions on the pitch, the tactics and substitutions have been what I would expect to see at a game of Sunday league football. The additions in the coaching staff again scream out naivety, by replacing a proven Premier League setup of Pulis, Kemp and Francis with a Championship one of Warnock, Jepson and Blackwell.
I believe we have taken a massive step backwards. I'm not a fan who calls for the manager's head and in this case I certainly won't call from the stands for "Warnock out" as I can't see many ideal replacements - sacking him now wouldn't be ideal and could make things even worse. Change should be for the better but too much too soon can be catastrophic.
If we carry on with him though, I fear the reality is that he is taking us down and we have a season of Championship football to look forward to.
So what would you do, stick or twist?
