If Tony Pulis deserves – as he does – £1m for keeping Palace up, what should be the size of Gus Poyet’s bonus? Fantastic job, Gus, Bravo the Lads for such a storming finish to the season. And here’s what the boss made of tonight in his customary post-match e-mail …
Dear Colin,
I’m so happy for everyone related to the club – the fans, the staff and the players.
We’ve spent the whole season fighting for this and it’s been very difficult; but the players believed and they committed themselves and we’ve done what we needed to do with a game in hand; that sounds impossible but that was our miracle.
I think we started the game well, we put pressure on West Bromwich Albion and we got the early goal; we knew if we could score and not concede that see us over the line.
It’s an incredible day, I’m going to be able to go home and relax for the first time in seven months, which is very special.
We’ve made this incredible escape and it’s going to be remembered for a long time.
We were in the bottom at Christmas and then we found ourselves seven points adrift with six games to go – to turn that around with a game in hand is unique!
The best way to sum it up is that we got the miracle that we needed.
The first goal was one of the best I’ve seen this season, then for the second, the timing and the connection was brilliant. It gave us a great edge to go in at half time and say we’re 45 minutes away from achieving our goal and the players believed in that.
For 10 minutes in the second half we were a little bit shaky, but we got through that and we showed that we deserved the win.
It’s not often I go on the pitch but I went out there to celebrate with the fans, it was a great feeling.
All the best,
Gus Poyet
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I think Poyet got lucky in the fact that Wickham came of age when he had to be included , simply because there was no one else . The five at the back was a nonsense , credit to Poyet though from learning from he’s mistakes and abandoning it just in time. The fantastic run of form was down to a few factors in my eyes . Firstly , after the Everton loss , we , Poyet , the team , all of us thought we were relegated so in a perverse way, the pressure was off. The team just went for it against City because they had nothing to lose, that performance gave them confidence for the Chelsea game and then we started to dream. Momentum built and confidence flowed through the whole club , lifted by our amazing fans to the crunch games against United,Cardiff ,West Brom and amazingly we didnt blow it. I also believe our cup runs held us in good stead , gave the team the belief after the City game that they could do it, because honestly the fixtures from City onwards really was the toughest cup run you could imagine , while we fell at the final hurdle at Wembley , this time we did it . I was incandescent after the Hull 1/4 final defeat , but I’m sorry Poyet picked that team with this scenario in mind and he deserves begrudged credit for it, I believe if we had an FA cup final to distract the players we would be down by now. If there’s one thing this incredible season has done for me , it’s to answer the question once and for all in my thoughts , what would you take , Premiership safety or a cup win and sadly financial stability and a healthy club wins over glory in these money obsessed times . Would still love to win one though, next year , eh !
Drummer
Good summary. Agree with most of that.
Cheers
I made very similar points on this site last week.
Gus Poyet will no doubt get most of the credit [ for our survival ] and obviously we all hope that he and the club will go from strength to strength from now on.
The fact is however that he has spent the better part of the season chopping and changing players and formations to no great effect whilst losing games with monotonous regularity.
I am not impressed with his incursions into the transfer market so far, none of whom, IMO are any better than what we have.
I think he made a major error of judgement in virtually throwing away our chance of an FA Cup Final by fielding a weakened side against Hull [ that will no doubt now be hailed as a tactical master stroke? ] and I think we lost the next five games while he experimented with stupid defensive formations in games that we had to score goals.
I give him credit for finally realising that our only chance of PL survival was to play a settled side, get the ball forward quicker, and to give Connor Wickham a chance to do what he had showed he could do at Sheffield W and for England under 21s.
I agree that Westwood is a better ‘keeper than Mannone [ I actually thought he was better than Mignolet [ and still do ] and I wouldn’t mind betting that if he stays, he will be our No 1 next season.
Three weeks ago, GP said that he thought that there was something fundamentally wrong at Sunderland – I wonder what he thinks now?
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Malcolm. I don’t think the club should have stuck with Di Canio. I’ve never said that and you know better than that, or at least you should.
Larsson for most of the season has been complete and utter garbage. Sorry, I take that back. He’s been garbage for the last two seasons or more. His venture into the box for the goal at Man Utd was the first for about the same time.
For what it’s worth I still don’t rate Mannone, and think that Westwood is a better keeper. He makes too many errors and they often go unpunished. Not at Man City though eh?
Vergini did look a waste of space but has emerged as a decent looking right back. He still hasn’t shown what he’s worth as a centre half. Maybe you are predicting great things for hime there are you?
I couldn’t agree more about Cattermole’s contribution. He has played the best he has ever played. As for Wickham not having done anything to warrant his inclusion. Does Altidore’s run of now 23 games (it was a few less when Wickham returned) warrant his inclusion? No, I don’t think so. 11 goals for Sheff Wed a division below is being ignored month after month while Altidore trundles around looking like Frank Bruno in football boots. It’s a shocking indictment of Poyet’s judgment or lack of it.
Great night, the difficult to understand bad run left us in a almost unassailable position, after playing positive and fluid football in beating Newcastle and the cup run, Gus changed things and it didn’t work, he left it late to change it back but he learned his lesson and has gained from the experience. He and the club have potential that can take us forward.
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If Tony Pulis deserves – as he does – £1m for keeping Palace up, what should be the size of Gus Poyet’s bonus? Fantastic job, Gus, Bravo the Lads for such a storming finish to the season. And here’s what the boss made of tonight in his customary post-match e-mail.
Sorry mate but no he doesn’t. He may have deserved a bonus had he dropped the much vaunted Ki and brought Wickham back in October. That’s the lad who has scored 5 goals for us in the last month. Poyet is lucky he’;s still in a job. He’s no more a good manager than Di Canio was a bad one. Delighted we are up but for goodness sake let’s not beatify a man who thought that a 5 man defence at home against West Ham was the way forward.
The players got us in this mess and they got us out. That’s where the responsibility/credit lies. This is the same bloke who looked ready to walk three weeks ago. He still keeps putting Aldi Store on the pitch. There has to be some contractual reason/blatant stupidity behind that. Take your pick.
Until he was brought back from Leeds Wickham had done nothing to justify his inclusion. I’m glad he’s come good. With Fletcher injured the only choice that Poyet had was to bring back him or Graham. I’m delighted that he suddenly seems to have become a player who looks at home in the Premier League and perhaps we can credit the coaching staff for sending him out on loan then bringing him back when necessary. I know for certain (direct quote from someone who works with him on a daily basis) that the club were frustrated by him.
Yes the manager tinkered and I’ll credit him for looking for the winning formula. It took a while but he succeeded. Central to that success has been Seb Larsson who I believe you have said in the past Jeremy, was a waste of space and should never play for the club again. I think you said that about Manonne too. Oh and Vergini has done great at full back. Didn’t you think he was a waste of space too? We know you think that the club should have stuck with Di Canio but more than half the team who got us out of the mess were at the club before PDC and he’d alienated them. Credit Poyet also for telling Ellis Short that Cattermole should stay when it looked as if a move to Stoke was almost sealed. Cattermole has been immense these past few weeks, last night again he dominated and got the longest cheer of the night for a quality tackle. (Apart from when the goals went in obviously).
Great as the results have been these past few weeks I have been most impressed with the positive attitude and that we look like a team that will score unlike so many games I have attended in the past.
I wish Altidore had scored yesterday but it does I’m afraid sum up his season. We’ll never know what might have happened had his goal against Arsenal been allowed to stand. But to give him his due he didn’t give up last night and used his muscle to hold the ball and keep possession which was what he’d been asked to do I suppose.
As the bloke behind me said “he’s a big lump of lard, but he’s our lump of lard” and the crowd got behind him when he did something positive. This made the way he walked off the pitch even more disappointing as he could have received some applause. I suspect he is quite depressed at his own performances and was expecting a negative response from the fans.
Yes we were 7 points adrift with 6 games to go and we turned it around in only 5. This makes up for (does anyone recall?) the Welbeck-Gyan-Bent season when at one stage we were 6th and a whole 7 points ahead of the 7th team. We lost that 7 points in 3 games. Football has a habit of throwing things like that at you. I’m glad the Gods let us have it back when we needed it most of all.
Altidore took his shirt off and gave it to someone in the West Brom dugout as soon as the final whistle went. Then straight off down the tunnel. Read into that what you will. I feared the crowd would get on his back after his miss but they didn’t.
But where is Geordie Doon Sooth when you need him most!