Frank De Boer. The right or wrong decision from Crystal Palace?

Transfers are a major talking point throughout a season, who’s staying, who’s not and ultimately, was it the right decision. This extends itself to the managers of English football’s top flight teams.

Managers are under extreme amounts of pressure on a weekly basis. This comes from the need to meet player’s, owner’s and fan’s satisfaction as well as interrogation from the media. It’s a dog eat dog world for Premier League managers who, with every loss and sub-par performance face the dreaded axe.

Just look at Ranieri at Leicester, after winning the League in the 2015/16 season, most fans would keep him on for as long as possible, a local hero. But after a less successful campaign the following year, Claudio was sacked just 8 months after he had performed a miracle at Leicester City.

Fans scrutinise managers right from the offset but surely even the toughest critics would allow a manager time to settle and prove a point? In Frank de Boer’s case however this is unfortunately not reality. After just 77 days or five games in charge of Crystal Palace, the Dutchman has departed Selhurst Park. After a very solid start to his managerial experience – winning four Eredivise titles in a row with Ajax – it looked to be a promising career indeed. However, Frank had another brief intermission with Inter Milan lasting only slightly longer than he did at Palace.

The third shortest Premier League managerial career ever probably comes as a shock to many. Frank only won one game in his five-match stint, a home win to Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup. Whilst it’s ‘only the cup’, Palace are on to the third round of the competition and could always go on a neat little cup run.

Crystal Palace did get off to a less than desirable start having lost their opening four matches but it is still very early in the season. De Boer has been criticised for wanting to play more entertaining football as opposed to the route one option as favoured by previous manager Allardyce. Any team would take time to adjust to such a tactical change but for Palace, five games was one too many seeing Frank depart the club.

Was it the right decision? It may seem harsh at first but only time will tell. Roy Hodgson will be looking ensure another Premier League season next year, though will he be able to salvage the sinking ship at Selhurst?

Only time will tell.

Written by Sam Brazier.