Alan Pardew has come under attack from one of his own Crystal Palace players, with Lee Chung-yong accusing the manager of making “absurd” decisions and forgetting how many substitutes he has left to chose from.
Lee made the comments to Sports Seoul, a publication in his native South Korea, and they paint a picture of someone who is fed up with his lot. Indeed in the interview, which has been picked up by the South London Press, the player goes onto say he doesn’t “have any reason to stay here next season” having joined Palace from Bolton for an undisclosed fee in February 2015. Since then Lee has struggled to make an impact at the London club, partly due to a hairline fracture he suffered shortly after moving to Selhurst Park and partly, in his view, because of his relationship with the man who brought him to Palace in the first place.
“Pardew is very smart in training but he’s too hot tempered in matches, so he even forgets how many substitutes are left,” Lee is quoted as saying by Sports Seoul. “He told me to warm up, then we used all three substitutes, so I sat on the bench again. Five minutes later, he told me to warm up again so I told him there was no substitutes left. He just said: ‘Oh, sorry.’
“Pardew also made me train as a starter for the whole week and decided to leave me out on match day as an injured player who had not trained all week recovered and felt OK on the day. That was absurd.”
Lee has made 19 appearances for Palace in the past 14 months and scored two goals, with his most recent coming in the 2-1 victory at Stoke on 19 December, when the 27-year-old secured an 88th minute winner for the visitors to the Britannia Stadium.
“I have a contract with Crystal Palace until 2018 but I don’t have any reason to stay here next season. I think I should try to talk to other clubs,” Lee is also quoted as saying by Sports Seoul. “If I had enough opportunities and had disappointed here, I would not make any excuses. But I never had opportunities.
“Pardew said he had wanted to sign me at Newcastle as well. It seemed that he really wanted to sign me so I decided to join Crystal Palace. But I got injured in January and returned in April. During that time, Crystal Palace did really well with [Puncheon, Bolasie and Zaha. So my place was gone.
“Pardew runs the team with a very short-term vision. We have a great squad but he plays the same players again and again until someone gets injured. Then his replacement cannot play well because he is playing for the first time in two months. I think that’s why we have not done well in the latter half of season.”
