It is a shame it had to end like this. Roy Hodgson is a boyhood Crystal Palace fan who fulfilled his remit of keeping the club in the Premier League in five different seasons. Yet his second spell in the Selhurst Park dugout has descended into acrimony and it is hard to see how the 76-year-old can continue.
The 4-1 loss to arch-rivals Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday was the nadir of the campaign to date. Palace were 1-0 down inside three minutes. They conceded the second and third goals in the space of 90 seconds. Brighton are an excellent team, so it was no surprise they outplayed Palace. More damningly, they outthought and outfought their adversaries too.
Everything that could have gone wrong, did. Marc Guehi came off injured in the first half. Michael Olise, introduced at the interval, was down the tunnel by the 56th minute after pulling his hamstring. Joachim Andersen was seen arguing with supporters at the end of the game.
At time of writing, Hodgson remains in position. He insisted in his post-match press conference that he has the "strength, resilience and determination to see things through". But according to the Guardian, Steve Parish considered sacking the former England boss soon after the debacle at the Amex Stadium. The axe may yet fall this week.
Hodgson has not covered himself in glory this term. The manager himself set a target of a top-half finish, but Palace have fallen well short of the standard required to achieve that. They have won only three of their last 16 Premier League outings - and two of those successes were against the bottom two, Burnley and Sheffield United. Since the beginning of October, only that pair has amassed fewer points than Palace.
The football has, for the most part, been uninspiring. The Eagles are averaging 11.6 shots per game and 42.1% possession, both the fifth-lowest figures in the division. Worryingly for Hodgson, a manager renowned for his ability to organise a team without the ball, Palace have gone 12 games without a clean sheet. Only Sheffield United have had their backline breached more often in that time.
Hodgson has made a number of faux pas off the pitch too. He has never been the best communicator, but several incidents this season have particularly annoyed supporters.
Hodgson has publicly criticised young players such as Matheus Franca and Naouirou Ahamada, while overlooking the shortcomings of more senior members of the squad. He implied the fans were "spoilt" after a negative reaction to a 2-0 home defeat by Bournemouth. And after the Brighton game, he attempted to absolve himself of censure for Olise’s latest hamstring injury by implying that the medical staff were responsible.
It would be wrong, however, to lay all the blame at Hodgson’s door. The absence for long periods of Olise and Ebere Eze has been damaging - the duo have only started four games together. Any bottom-half team would struggle without their two best attacking players for 83% of their fixtures.
Moreover, Hodgson did not hand himself a one-year contract last summer. Parish, who oversees the day-to-day running of the club despite only having a 10% stake, erred in retaining the manager after his fantastic work on an interim basis last term. Everyone knows what you get from Hodgson, so it is hard to criticise him for delivering the type of football he has throughout his long career.
Some fans have called for Parish to leave the club as well, but that would not necessarily serve Palace well. The chairman undoubtedly made a mistake by reappointing Hodgson last summer, but he has got more things right than wrong during his 14-year tenure. His cautious tendencies in the transfer market can be frustrating, but Palace’s recruitment has been much improved in recent seasons, as evidenced by the exploits of Guehi, Eze and Olise and others.
Even so, Parish cannot let this situation drag on for much longer. If Hodgson is not relieved of his duties soon, the atmosphere at Selhurst will only become more toxic.
