Sam Allardyce will consider Crystal Palace an opportunity. Alan Pardew did too, even if it was one he ultimately failed to grasp. But the brief assessment delivered by the prospective new manager as he arrived at the club’s Beckenham training ground on Friday was less an attempt to butter up the co-owners and more an expression of enthusiasm. “Fantastic, fantastic,” he offered through the open window of his 4x4, before edging the car on towards a final round of talks and a signing on the dotted line.
This team have drowned in gloomy statistics of late, saddled by constant reminders of shoddy form through the calendar year or vulnerability at set pieces, and now forever fearful that a single loss is to prove the prelude to another prolonged succession of defeats. Allardyce may not spy it on the training ground, where the mood among the troops has always been relatively upbeat, but he will quickly discover that in-game confidence is brittle. Theirs is a collective frustration. This team know they are better than 17th in the Premier League. They are not a side who should be losing eight games out of 10, or even 22 since the turn of the year. That tally suggests deep-rooted problems but, more than anything, they are guilty of underachievement which, in truth, is more infuriating than being truly out of their depth.
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