In considering who the next manager should be Palace will (as ever) be subject to a familiar tension. On one hand, if we seek a manager who accepts, and is suited to working within, all the clubs limitations then we will probably end up with a lesser coach and more anti-football. If, on the other hand, we manage to attract someone with a more impressive pedigree then sooner or later they will bristle and chafe against those limitations, as and when they arise. Which they inevitably will.
Whoever turns up will absolutely not have as good a set of players as Glasner got. We have just had a purple patch where several promising but unproven (mostly younger) players all came to the boil at around the same time, and exceeded any reasonable hopes we might have had.
To be clear: the next manager will not be working with the next Bayern Munich and France No10, the next Arsenal No10, the England centre back and target for Liverpool, Man City etc... Whatever transfers we pursue, the dice just will not come up double-sixes everywhere like that again.
At the same time, there is still some quality there. Moreover, the investment in Nketiah and Johnson MUST be made to bear fruit. Much the same could be said of Pino. Perhaps Canvot, too. Whilst every signing is a risk and a certain number will always fail, we cannot sign players at their ages for that much money and not get the most out of them. That suggests we go for a coach who picks his system based on the players we have, not one who has a system we need to sign players for. Both Palace and Glasner got lucky that what we had fitted his methods (once Munoz arrived). Surely, question number one at the interview is 'How will you get the best out of what we have already?' not 'Who do you need us to sign?'.
In terms of the status of the manager we pursue, Parish has shown plenty of ambition before. Its easy to forget that he pushed the boat out to get De Boer (which was all very exciting at the time) specifically to play more positive football, and to have a high-calibre coach. He was prepared to pay big money for Nuno. He pays big money for Glasner, including getting him in earlier than planned. He obviously does not see Palace as limited to unfashionable old-school dinosaurs, he just reverts to them when needed. He has also never appointed from within before. All of this suggests that while we won't get anyone with serious top-level pedigree, we will perhaps be looking for someone who could get to that level.
Personality-wise, I see no reason why Parish should want to find a yes-man. A good coach will doubtless come with a bit of ego. Parish has handled most of our managers well, including Glasner recently, and will probably be willing to take some rough with the smooth if it allows him to squeeze the very most out of the appointment. At the same time, we cannot have a big baby throwing toys out of his pram from day one. Club unity is a big part of our success. The new man must respect that, and keep his concerns in-house.
That is possible. Look at the Bournemouth coach. He builds a really good side, does well, then sees the club sell his whole back four in one go. He must have been gutted, but he just got on with it. He gets the team going again, and the club sells his best attacker in January. Again, he just gets on with it. No public bleating. Emery at Villa has started to moan a bit recently but mostly he has just got on with it, even when he got Villa into the Champions League only to find they still had to sell players and not really strengthen. I'm sure he was fuming. I'm sure both managers are asking themselves if its time to move onwards and upwards, but they channel that into doing a great job. That's what we need.
Fans may choose to totally ignore reality, to blind themselves to any and all understanding of FFP, PSR, finance, the nature of football economics etc, and instead insist on 'ambition' and the next level etc. I find it hard to respect, but I suppose they have the right, its only football after all. The club, however, must live in the real world.
Palace will never be able to provide, and certainly not keep, a squad good enough to play in Europe regularly. We will probably be a short-term 'project' for someone, a shop window, a chance to do well enough to be on the big boys radars before moving on and up. That's what we are to players, and it allows us to get very good ones sometimes.
I imagine we will approach the managers position in the same way. They don't need to run the club, just pick the team and coach it. In that way, it doesn't matter so much if they only stay for two years or so.
England
Ukraine
Scotland
