The Crystal Palace chairman, Steve Parish, is to speak with Alan Pardew in the next 24 hours as he seeks evidence that the manager has drawn up a clear plan aimed at extricating the team from their dismal six-game losing run.
Parish, who has been supportive of Pardew throughout a difficult year, was keen to allow the dust to settle after the numbing 5-4 defeat at Swansea on Saturday, when the visitors surrendered a 4-3 lead in stoppage time to leave them outside the bottom three only on goal difference.
The manager is anxious to remain in charge, spoke with his players at the club’s Beckenham training complex on Monday and, as it stands, will still be in charge for the visit of Southampton to Selhurst Park on Saturday.
In an ideal world, Palace would back Pardew to turn around recent form and instigate a revival. However, with the team’s displays having become increasingly chaotic, the chairman will need reassuring that both manager and playing squad are united and focused upon arresting what has been an alarming decline. That could yet include Pardew considering the addition of another defensive coach to his back-room staff – Keith Millen oversees those duties – with Palace having shipped 17 goals in five matches, and 13 from set-pieces this season. Four of those came at the Liberty Stadium.
The uncertainty around Pardew’s position is being played out with the club’s hierarchy – including the American co-owners, David Blitzer and Josh Harris, who will have a significant say on what happens next – acutely aware of Sam Allardyce’s availability as a potential replacement. The former Sunderland manager, who left his position with England after 67 days in September, is content enough biding his time until the right opportunity arises but, ultimately, is intent upon returning to top‑flight football.
The former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini and another ex-England head coach, Roy Hodgson, have been mooted as alternative candidates and the latter boasts close ties with Palace, through whose youth ranks he graduated as a player. Yet the notion he might work in conjunction with Pardew, as Terry Venables did with Bryan Robson at Middlesbrough, seems unlikely.
