Crystal Palace

Neil Warnock has become the first Premier League manager to be sacked in the 2014/15 season after Crystal Palace confirmed his dismissal.

Here’s the club statement in full, courtesy of the Eagles' official website:

Crystal Palace Football Club can today confirm that Neil Warnock has been relieved of his duties and is no longer first-team manager.

The club would like to put on record its thanks to Neil for all his hard work and energy over the past four months.

Keith Millen will lead the team against Queens Park Rangers tomorrow as caretaker manager.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher was shocked by the news:

Palace sack Warnock. Who would you get to keep them up who's out of work????

— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) December 27, 2014

Daniel Storey of Football365 reflected on Warnock's Premier League career as a whole:

It took Neil Warnock 34 years of club management to be appointed by a top flight club. In 123 days, we saw why no-one else ever should.

— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) December 27, 2014

The 66-year-old boss joined the Selhurst Park club on the cusp of the current campaign after the surprise departure of Tony Pulis.

And while he has guided Palace to wins over big names such as Liverpool and Everton, the team’s form has been pretty poor overall, as we can see here courtesy of WhoScored.com:

Crystal Palace: Have won just 1 of their last 12 matches (vs Liverpool), losing 7 and drawing 4 #cpfc

— WhoScored (@WhoScored) December 27, 2014

After losing 3-1 at home to Southampton on Boxing Day—a result that left Palace languishing in the relegation zone—the Eagles hierarchy clearly decided enough was enough and will now look for a different man to steer them away from trouble.

Now that one manager has left his post, Sky Sports' Chris Kamara thinks that more could follow:

Neil Warnock first Prem manager of the season to get the sack, watch out for the pack of cards @BreatheSport

— Chris Kamara (@chris_kammy) December 27, 2014

Naturally, comparisons will be drawn to Ian Holloway’s dismissal by Palace last season with the London club in a similar predicament. In the last campaign, Pulis steered the club to safety in sensational fashion, and now the onus will be on the likes of chairman Steve Parish to find a replacement who can have a comparably positive effect.

Warnock will have been disappointed to make little impact with a group of talented players. For so long he has been bracketed as a capable Championship-standard manager but someone who struggled when making that step up to the top flight. Unfortunately for him, he has done little to dispel that label, and it remains to be seen if he'll ever get another chance to do so.

Yannick Bolasie showed off an incredible bit of skill in Crystal Palace's match vs. Tottenham on Saturday, magically escaping the corner and rounding Christian Eriksen.

He then followed it up with a well-placed pass, but Joe Ledley couldn't put his shot on target and the move came to naught. 

Wilfried Zaha and Christian Eriksen each showed off some moves of their own, but Bolasie's has to be the best.

Bolasie tekkers vs Spurs #CPFC #Tekkers #FootyVines https://t.co/Oz6c2qdVW8

— ｒｕｄｙ (@regaldy) December 6, 2014

https://twitter.com/theRealHrdlicka/status/541247731713724416

#cpfc #zaha skills https://t.co/uzrSBVJpSM

— Boris (@Borisdaboss1) December 6, 2014

[@regaldy, @Borisdaboss1, @TheRealHrdlicka]  

All was going to plan for Liverpool at Crystal Palace on Sunday when Rickie Lambert gave them the lead after just two minutes.

However, just like last season when they blew a three-goal lead at Selhurst Park, it would prove to be a painful day in south London for the Reds.

First Dwight Gayle, who scored twice in that game last season, levelled matters in the 17th minute after Yannick Bolasie's initial shot cannoned off the post.  

Dwight Gayle evens it up for Palace on 15'. CPFC 1-1 LFC. https://t.co/EBbCEyNMci via @vine

— Goals and Funnies (@GoalsAndFunnies) November 23, 2014

Bolasie again played the role of provider in the 78th minute as he set up Joe Ledley for the goal that put Palace in front.  

Gol de Ledley para el Palace: https://t.co/pInEc55nRu

— Carrusel Rev. Indios (@R_Indios_Carrus) November 23, 2014

Palace saved the best for last, though, as captain Mile Jedinak wrapped up the points with a simply stunning free-kick. 

my dad, brother & I literally screamed & celebrated when Jedinak... You know the rest! 😂 #CRYLIV #BendItLikeBeckham https://t.co/9I3ovpKobm

— jianhaoyoung (@ojh__young) November 23, 2014

[Twitter, Vine]

If good things come to those who wait, then Mile Jedinak’s patience was handsomely rewarded last season.

Already 27 by the time he played his first game in English football, having joined a Crystal Palace side that had just finished 21st and 20th in its previous two campaigns in the Championship in the summer of 2011, last season he captained the Eagles as they finished 11th in the Premier League—before immediately going off to captain his nation in the World Cup in Brazil.

The Australian—now a veteran of more than 50 caps, having made his debut in 2008—has gone through four permanent managers (and four different periods of caretaker control) in his three years at Selhurst Park, yet despite that turmoil, the team has managed to improve year-on-year.

As far as Jedinak is concerned, that is a tribute to the great mental strength and determination of the players at the club, a collection of kindred spirits who approach matters in the same determined, focused manner as the man who wears the armband.

“The group has been built not by one particular manager, but over a number of years,” Jedinak tells Bleacher Report. “There are new faces that come in, but everyone understands their roles and that has been a huge part of our success.

“I hate to say it, but it makes it a little bit easier when a manager goes when you’ve got such strong characters and personalities. Of course it is never actually easy—no-one ever likes to see managers leave—but it is about what you have in the group, and we have very strong men and very strong characters.

“That’s what makes us able to get through it—and the fact there is always still a job to do.”

If such spirit, such strength of will, is forged through adversity, then it is not too hard to see where Jedinak's personal reserves came from. Getting to this point in his career has been a long journey, along a route that Google Maps would hardly recommend.

His first crack at a career in European football, when still a teenager, was an aborted one—a 19-year-old Jedinak earned a contract with Croatian side NK Varteks (now known as Varazdin) following a trial during a trip to Europe with an Australian youth side.

Jedinak’s heritage is Croatian, making the transition slightly more straightforward, but the opportunity did not pan out as hoped, with the youngster hardly given a chance in the first team (one Europa League substitute appearance apart).

The Sydney-born man is all about taking the positives from any situation, though.

“It didn’t happen for me but I learned a lot and grew a lot as a person,” Jedinak, who remains in contact with some of those he met at the club, recalls. “It made me an even stronger character and a better person for it.”

This seems to be a theme with Jedinak—learning from every setback and coming back even more determined. After Varteks, he returned to Australia, eventually landing at the Central Coast Mariners and gradually imposing himself as one of the best midfielders in the A-League.

Towards the end of his third year with the club, Turkish side Genclerbirligi watched Jedinak in one game, immediately making him an offer. At 24, he felt better prepared to have another crack at European football—and this was the only offer on the table.

“At that time I thought I was ready to go overseas, and at that time it was the only thing that presented itself,” he says. “I jumped at the opportunity and saw it as a real chance to prove myself in Europe again.”

Jedinak started well in Ankara but was slowly marginalised and ended up on loan to Antalyaspor—who he actually helped finish above his parent club in the Super Lig—in the final year of his deal.

With his future up in the air, Palace, through their assistant manager (and former Australia international) Tony Popovic, tentatively approached the midfielder.

“Obviously the contact was made through Tony Popovic, and there were conversations and I met with [manager at the time] Dougie Freedman,” Jedinak says. “There was a conversation about things and then that progressed to genuine interest, and then it was about me making that decision.

“I made that decision fairly quickly—and I haven’t looked back since.”

Didn’t Palace’s situation, fighting at the wrong end of England’s second tier, concern him?

“No, I didn’t take notice of where Palace had finished previously,” he says. “It was more about wanting to work with a group of men—particularly at that time Dougie and Popa—because I got good vibes off them. I thoroughly enjoyed that period.”

Under Freedman, Jedinak would quickly establish himself as a no-nonsense holding midfielder with an underrated range of passing, and along with a number of other new faces like Joel Ward, Glenn Murray and Yannick Bolasie (and the emerging talent of academy graduate Wilfried Zaha), the club’s results quickly improved.

Freedman would eventually leave in controversial circumstances, to be replaced by Ian Holloway, but the club would win promotion through the play-offs in 2013.

Tony Pulis would then oversee most of last season’s remarkable campaign—the first time the south London club had ever avoided relegation from the top flight—with Neil Warnock now tasked with taking the club forward after Pulis left in contentious circumstances on the eve of the current season.

The circle could even be completed before too long—if Warnock, 65, is considered only a short-term solution at the club, Popovic (whose Western Sydney Warriors won the Asian Champions League on Sunday) would seem a strong potential candidate for any eventual vacancy.

The captain is quick to pay tribute to all four managers for the work they have done in helping deliver Palace to this point, even as their own managerial careers have yet to make similar leaps forward (Freedman and Pulis are both currently unemployed, while Holloway is toiling at Millwall).

“Every manager deserves a part of whatever success you have,” Jedinak says. “They build squads, and particularly at this football club they build the style of play.

“Managers are driving the ship, so to speak, without actually being on the pitch, so every manager I’ve worked under here definitely deserves credit.”

It is the players who are the constant, however. In many ways, last season was the culmination of that long journey for Jedinak, the reward for those early years waiting for his big break. The captain led by example on the pitch, as Palace defied pre-season expectations to finish 11th in the table.

Only an injury in the final game against Fulham prevented him from being the rare outfield player to play every minute of every league game—surely it must have been frustrating to have to limp off at Craven Cottage?

“Not too frustrating, until it gets mentioned in questions like this!” he observes wryly. “Would I have liked to have finished out the season? Absolutely. But these things happen. It is what it is—I’m happy I played as much as I did.”

As a constant presence over the 38 games, he is as well placed as anyone to pick out the highlights. Two in particular stick out.

“Chelsea at home was a massive turning point for us, a huge factor in our push for the end,” Jedinak says, highlighting the 1-0 win at Selhurst Park that derailed Jose Mourinho’s title push.

“[But] Everton away was a performance—that was a performance [a 3-2 win in April, a result and scoreline they repeated earlier this season] we should all be proud of.

“The way we all went up there and did what did up there. It was a real stellar performance, an all-round team effort and it was the game that got us to 40 points, that magical 40 number.

“The camaraderie, and how everyone was into it afterwards, was amazing.”

This season has yet to see similar emotional high points, with the side picking up nine points from their opening nine games.

Jedinak—who leads the league in tackles made—characterises the start as no more than “okay,” but Monday night sees the Eagles host Sunderland, one of the few sides below them, in a game that could kick-start an improved run.

“I would like to think in the coming weeks and months we will start to pick up some more points,” he notes, making it clear that is an expectation rather than a hope.

On overall ambitions for the season, the skipper is acutely aware of the score: “First and foremost it is about staying up, and then trying to push on from there.”

The atmosphere at Selhurst Park last season earned Palace a lot of new admirers, with the chanting, particularly from the always vocal Holmesdale Stand, making it one of the most passionate arenas in the league.

How important was that support in inspiring Palace to their impressive final position, especially after they picked up just four points from their opening 11 games?

“Massively. Massively [important],” says Jedinak. “Even when things weren’t going too well at the start, everyone remained strong and focused and very, very loud. It got us through some sticky moments. We always knew that everyone was behind us and I think in the end our success had a lot to do with that.”

Beyond Jedinak and goalkeeper Julian Speroni (whose testimonial, after 10 years’ service at the club, will be next year), the performances of Joel Ward gained a huge number of plaudits.

The 25-year-old played right-back, left-back and in midfield over the course of the season, but it is another quality about the former Portsmouth player that makes Jedinak believe Ward—who is yet to agree a new contract with the club—could make the step up to the national team that many have been clamouring for.

“I think he’s got that ability,” Jedinak says. “I know what he does here on a daily basis, and what he has been doing on the pitch, you know he is a kid that works very hard.

“I think he definitely has that ability to step up to the next level. Whenever you play it is about consistency and he has definitely got that. If he gets called up—or, as I would like to think, when he gets called up—then I think he will do well, because I think he is one that blends in and adapts to what is needed from him.”

The arrival of James McArthur in the summer, to go with Joe Ledley’s signing in January, has lessened the need for Ward to deputise in midfield, but Palace will still feel the pinch in January and February, when Jedinak joins up with the Australia squad for the forthcoming Asian Cup.

It continues a fairytale run for Jedinak. First he captains his country at a World Cup, and barely six months later he will get the honour in another major international tournament, this one also on home soil.

“It’s definitely the biggest honour to captain your country at a World Cup,” Jedinak says. “Only three others have done it before me so it’s obviously massive. I enjoyed every minute of it.”

On the Asian Cup, he adds: “It’s going to be exciting because it is in Australia, but the downside is you will miss games for Palace.

“It’s going to be a great plus, being at home, but by no means is it going to be a walk in the park. It’s a challenge that we need to embrace. Where we get to after that is down to us.”

The further Australia go in the competition, of course, the longer Palace will have to make do without him.

“It is what it is,” he acknowledges. “But until that point I will be giving my absolute everything for Palace.”

Palace fans have never known anything less.

After the remarkable turnaround last season, when they were taken from what looked like certain relegation to comfortable mid-table, big things were expected for Crystal Palace under Tony Pulis this season.

However, Pulis' shock departure, just days before the start of the season, threw all their plans out of the window, the theory that they might even be better after their manager had a full pre-season to work with scotched.

The appointment of Pulis' successor is unlikely to revive any optimistic predictions, either. Neil Warnock might have been described by Palace chairman Steve Parish as a "safe pair of hands," as per Sky Sports, but Warnock's last job was with Leeds, which he left in April 2013, with them sitting five points above the relegation zone in the Championship.

Indeed, this is the first time Warnock has ever been given a top-flight job. He has previously managed in the Premier League, but only after winning promotion with Sheffield United then QPR. On both occasions their time in the top division was a failure, as Sheffield United were relegated and he was sacked by QPR, leaving Mark Hughes to (just about) save them from the drop.

The closest Warnock has ever come to actually taking a top-flight position before this was in 1991 when he turned down the Chelsea job in order to stay at Notts County, as per The Independent. Obviously, that can hardly be used in his favour because we have no idea how he might have fared at Stamford Bridge, and of course it was 23 years ago.

Warnock seems to believe that he has unfinished business in the Premier League. He said on Friday, as quoted by The Guardian:

Things happen for a reason at times and I’ve felt this time that it’s an opportunity to pay [Palace] back a bit. To give back to the fans, who have been brilliant. It’ll take a lot of hard work, I know there’s going to be ups and downs and criticisms along the way, but for the next eight months I’m going to work as hard as I’ve ever worked.

You don’t often get a chance to repay and I think I owe them a little bit, so it’s great to be given that chance.

One of Warnock's key challenges is to get the best out of Wilfried Zaha once again. The winger has returned to Selhurst Park on a season-long loan deal, as per the BBC, after failing to establish himself at Manchester United, and he made little impact at Cardiff during a spell there in the second half of last season.

Questions about his attitude have been raised, referenced by Warnock when quoted by Sky Sports, and perhaps a friendly manager and familiar surroundings will spur him on to repeating the form of his first spell at Palace, but it will be a challenge.

Warnock clearly has the determination to do the job and keep Palace in the division, but does he have the ability? His past record suggests that he was a decent Championship manager who found himself out of his depth when put among the big boys. There is a reason he hasn't been given a top-flight job in all of his years in management, and Palace might be about to find out why.

Given the farce that surrounded the aborted appointment of Malky Mackay, Palace's options were limited, but in appointing Warnock, Parish does not have a "safe pair of hands," but rather has taken a massive gamble that will probably fail.

Crystal Palace's appointment of Neil Warnock as their new manager was broken by the club's shirt sponsor, Neteller, in a bizarre move by the team.

The Premier League outfit announced before the confirmation that the Neteller account was the place to go for the news:

The club's new manager will be announced at 1.05pm @NETELLER

— Crystal Palace FC (@CPFC) August 27, 2014

Sure enough, its confirmation came first:

BREAKING NEWS - @CPFC are delighted to announce that Neil Warnock has been appointed as their new manager with immediate effect #cpfc

— NETELLER (@NETELLER) August 27, 2014

As a marketing ploy, we can only imagine Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward is kicking himself that he didn't let Chevrolet reveal the Angel Di Maria deal.

[Twitter] 

Neil Warnock has been appointed Crystal Palace manager for the second time, signalling an end to a turbulent couple of weeks for the Premier League side.

Warnock's appointment was revealed by Palace's official Twitter account:

David Ornstein of BBC Sport indicates Warnock beat off considerable competition and will have money to spend:

The 65-year-old returns to Selhurst Park after originally taking the reigns between 2007-10, a tenure which ended with the London-based side being deducted 10 points after going into administration. Warnock has since taken over Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United in a managerial career that spans over 30 years.

Palace fans will hope the returning boss can steady the club's sudden regression. Tony Pulis' decision to leave shortly before the start of the current season, as reported by Ornstein, threatened to undo all of the club's progress after last season's 11th-place finish. Although Pulis' exit was by "mutual consent," many will feel aggrieved the ex-Stoke boss left after such a tremendous campaign.

Malky Mackay looked set to take over the hot seat until a flurry of allegations forced Palace to end their pursuit. The former Cardiff manager is reported to have sent "racist, homophobic and sexist" text messages and emails during his spell with the Welsh club, per Matt Lawton of the Daily Mail.

These allegations were made after the house of Iain Moody, Mackay's former head of recruitment at Cardiff, was raided "as part of Cardiff’s £750,000 investigation into eight controversial transfers," per Lawton.

Unfortunately for Palace, Moody was acting as sporting director at the club when the allegations arose. He recently resigned from his role as a result, as reported by Lawton in an alternative article.

Palace's team have suffered alongside these problems and are yet to gain a point after two Premier League matches. It's Warnock's job to quickly restore order in a side that is sure to be lacking confidence after defeats to Arsenal and West Ham United. While Palace showed determination to go ahead at the Emirates, the home loss to Sam Allardyce's Hammers is sure to have many worried.

Warnock's first game in charge is a difficult trip to Newcastle, a new-look side who will be eager to impress in front of a St. James' Park crowd. He will then lead Palace out against Burnley, a crucial fixture if the side remain winless after the international break.

A side story is developing with the realisation Warnock will now oversee Jason Puncheon, a player he endured a spat with after criticising him on talkSPORT at the beginning of the year. Puncheon skied a penalty against Spurs, only for Warnock to suggest there is "no way" he would have trusted the player to take a spot-kick.

Puncheon responded angrily, per Squawka:

Gary Lineker also hinted the pair may need to sort out their differences:

The new boss has just five days to shape his squad before the transfer window closes. Warnock faces the difficult challenge of utilising someone else's team without being able to influence it too readily. He will need to work resourcefully until at least January—which presents his first opportunity to significantly sculpt the side—despite having money to spend now.

Palace fans will likely be fearing a major fall now that Pulis has moved on. Warnock is a vastly experienced manager who has plenty to prove in the top flight after his recent spell with QPR, which saw him sacked after a run of eight games without a win.

He needs to ensure this doesn't happen during his second stint with Palace, especially after the side's poor start to the season. While undoubtedly a difficult job, Pulis has left Warnock a capable squad of players who have already highlighted their ability to compete with the best.

Crystal Palace’s non-appointment of Malky Mackay as the club’s new manager is a reminder, if one was needed, that even many people working at the very heart of modern football—let alone those who follow it from the stands, pubs and living rooms around the world—do not really know what goes on behind the closed doors of rival clubs.

It is not difficult to imagine the sense of shock that must have overcome Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish when it became known to him that Mackay—the man he intended to appoint to succeed Tony Pulis, to the extent they had tipped off the press about it on Tuesday evening—was about to become the subject of an FA investigation over his conduct during his previous employment at Cardiff City.

What is worse, part of that investigation centred on his relationship with then-Cardiff sporting director Iain Moody, a man Parish had subsequently appointed to fulfil a similar job at Selhurst Park midway through last season.

Per a report by Matt Lawton published in the Daily Mail, Mackay and Moody exchanged emails and text messages that were occasionally racist, sexist and homophobic in nature, adding an unsavoury edge to previous claims that Cardiff owner Vincent Tan was determined to pursue both men over payments made as part of the Bluebirds’ transfer dealings last summer (as repeated in this Guardian report by James Riach).

Moody resigned from his Palace post on Thursday morning, with a terse club statement reading:

In light of the events of yesterday, Sporting Director, Iain Moody has tendered his resignation and it has been accepted with immediate effect. There will be no further comment from the club on this matter.

Clearly, something serious had occurred, with the assertion there will be "no further comment" perhaps hinting at the presence of underlying legal issues.

When Mackay and Moody left Cardiff City within two months of each other last season, Tan was widely characterised as the bad guy in the whole situation, the meddling foreign owner with no clue what he was doing in the honest and pleasant land of English football.

At the time, the Malaysian—a figure of fun on social media for his high waistband and thin moustache—warned that the truth would come out eventually; what was initially dismissed as the bluster of a maverick now looks very much like a well-informed warning that Palace, to their cost, never really heeded.

Palace, of course, were fined earlier this week by the FA for failing to act with due integrity towards the Welsh club last season, amid claims that a Palace official—widely reported by outlets as being Moody—attempted, and succeeded, in gaining secret tactical and selection reports from the Cardiff camp ahead of the two clubs’ vital Premier League relegation battle.

Palace eventually won the game 3-0 and finished 11th with Cardiff, five points behind their rivals at the time, ultimately relegated to the Championship.

There had been claims that Cardiff would pursue Palace for further compensation over this affair, an addendum (and a worrying one for Palace) to the desire to see Mackay and Moody investigated for the transfer dealings.

While the messages that Moody and Mackay shared have understandably grabbed the headlines, and therefore been cited as the reason for the goings-on at Selhurst Park, the reality is that is the other two charges were equally important, perhaps more so, in convincing the Palace board they needed to distance themselves from two toxic individuals as quickly as possible.

After all, it is worth noting the messages were only uncovered (and made public) as lawyers searched for evidence relating to transfer wrongdoing.

As Matt Lawton wrote in his Daily Mail exclusive:

These messages came to light after a dawn raid on Moody’s south London home in March this year, as part of Cardiff’s £750,000 investigation into eight controversial transfers.

They engaged London law firm Mishcon de Reya, whose investigators obtained a search order from the High Court to enter Moody’s house in Balham, seizing work computers and phones and taking electronic imagery of evidence. 

They were investigating alleged wrongdoing related to one of these transfers.

Cardiff submitted their findings to the FA this week, with the messages coming to light soon after. While the views expressed were clearly abhorrent and have no place in modern society, like most sports, football has a remarkable ability to overlook such issues if the individual in question has the talent to do a job.

While the next few weeks will undoubtedly be difficult for Mackay, despite the views he expressed, he will highly likely get the chance to work again in football (albeit perhaps years down the line, at a lower level) if his reputation is otherwise kept clean.

Richard Scudamore, for example, remains chairman of the Premier League despite being involved in a similar scandal surrounding email messages he sent. The FA decided the messages were private correspondence and did not pursue a charge, an argument Moody and Mackay will doubtless also try to make.

If Mackay and Moody are found to have handled certain transfer dealings inappropriately, however, their names will likely forever be on the sport’s blacklist. It is important to note, of course, that Cardiff are yet to produce any proof of wrongdoing.

The offensive messages were an unexpected addition rather than the focus of the raid. They may have cost Mackay his chance at the Palace job, but it is the investigation that must hold greater danger for his long-term prospects.

For Crystal Palace, meanwhile, the plot only thickens. The pressure on Parish is now immense, with his judgement suddenly called firmly into question.

Not once but twice he has been seen to err in the last 10 days; having been instrumental in the departure of one popular and successful manager in the last week, he has now seen a deal for the intended successor washed away by sorry allegations about his prior conduct, allegations that have also drawn one of his most high-profile existing employees into the mire.

After two such mistakes, Parish must be acutely aware of the need to make sure whoever is now appointed to finally fill Pulis’ shoes is fully up to the job.

Unfortunately, that too will not be easy, with the list of potential candidates diminished by recent events.

Reports indicate Tim Sherwood is no longer interested in the post, having so publicly been relegated to second-choice option as the Eagles initially pursued Mackay (this too may apply to Martin Jol, who was tentatively linked with the post.).

Yet another ex-Spurs boss, Glenn Hoddle, was said to have turned down the job (per Dominic Fifield and Stuart James of The Guardian), although this seems unlikely—after undergoing extensive interviews and talks with both Mackay and Sherwood, would Parish really just get up and offer the job (rather than an initial interview) to anyone, even an ex-England manager?

If he did, that would be alarming sign of how panicked the situation has all become, although a more realistic prospect is that Hoddle was approached about an interview but, deliberately or otherwise, leaked a stronger version of events to the press.

Beyond that, it remains to be seen if Steve Clarke, a man similar in some ways to both Pulis and Mackay, would be prepared to consider the job—although, after one sour experience with a board after his dismissal at West Brom, the Scot may consider Parish a dubious chairman to willingly become associated with.

Neil Lennon is another unattached manager who most would consider to have the requisite profile, although he too might feel there are safer places to start your Premier League management career.

If all those candidates prove unattainable, then the panic may really set in. Ex-Palace defender (and current Western Sydney Warriors coach) Tony Popovic has been touted as a possibility, while Derby County boss Steve McClaren has been linked but has surely learned from past experiences that “better” opportunities are not always what they appear.

A move for Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe (who was previously offered the job by Parish back in 2010 but turned it down according to the Daily Mail's Sami Mokbel) should not be ruled out, but he lacks the "intimate knowledge of the Premier League" that Parish has insisted will be a requirement of any new appointment.

This might be another example of the Palace chairman unnecessarily limiting his options and could ultimately leave current caretaker boss Keith Millen as the last man standing, sliding into the permanent role almost by default.

"I'd like to continue, I enjoy being in charge," Millen, who is due to take Palace’s Thursday press conference, told reporters after last weekend’s defeat to Arsenal. "If the chairman felt it was right for me then I would sit down and talk to him about it. I like working at this club."

Mackay and Moody might today be facing the decimation of their reputations and careers, but for Parish and Palace, the scrutiny is also growing with more decisions and challenges still to come.

Malky Mackay gained a lot of goodwill during his time at Cardiff City, and especially near the end of it.

As the BBC reported at the time, meddling Bluebirds chairman Vincent Tan had made his former manager’s tenure well near unbearable, and in the middle of last December he presented Mackay with a resign-or-be-sacked ultimatum.

Mackay, with considerable backing from the club’s fans, carried on in his job despite the very public fallout until Tan, claiming in a statement published by the BBC that the Scotsman’s transfer spending had put Cardiff City in an “uncomfortable state of affairs,” relieved him of his duties.

Mackay departed Leckwith having won a Football League Championship and a place in the League Cup final.

Well-liked and seemingly comfortable in the top flight of English football, Mackay was never going to be out of work for long. So when Toni Pulis suddenly quit his post at Crystal Palace last week, the 42-year-old was always going to be among the contenders for the vacancy at Selhurst Park.

On Tuesday, reports surfaced that Mackay was set to agree to a three-year contract at the south-east London outfit, as per The Guardian.

His relationship with Iain Moody, the former Cardiff City sporting director and the current Crystal Palace one, no doubt helped his chances, especially considering that the two previously worked together at Watford as well.

Moody was brought in to help hire former Palace manager Ian Holloway’s replacement—which ended up being Pulis—and would seem to have the full backing of club co-chairman Steve Parish, with whom Pulis is said to have disagreed on recruitment strategy, according to the London Evening Standard.

Parish, however, has denied a transfer-related rift with Pulis and last weekend told Match of the Day there had been “no friction” between the two.

“There was a good transfer budget agreed,” he said. “There was a lack of targets [Pulis] felt were good enough in the window and it came to a point where he felt he could not carry on.”

He added: “I can’t have people at the football club who are not 100 percent committed to what we are trying to do.”

Mackay, one would expect, will have entered the Palace frame already knowing the recruitment strategy given his connection with Moody. But the two of them, incidentally, were shipped out of Cardiff following Tan’s accusations of over-spending in the 2013 summer transfer market, according to the BBC.

Moody and Mackay, for example, brought Andreas Cornelius, Steven Caulker and Gary Medel into the club for a combined £25 million, and none of the trio spent more than the one season in the Welsh capital.

It goes without saying that the purse strings will be rather tighter at Palace, where Parish and Stephen Browett operate under a considerably more sustainable approach than Tan.

But will it work?

As a man-manager, no one doubts Mackay’s ability. And in a broader sense it would seem he’s certainly cut out for the Premier League, although his body of work in that regard is limited.

What will almost certainly prove key to his latest posting, should it be finalised, is his relationship with Parish, and his willingness to work within the club’s restraints as they are gradually reduced.

Palace are being set up for long-term feasibility, and in that Mackay will find a considerably more refreshing environment than he experienced with Tan.

He just has to play by the rules.

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