THE new playing style never suited Crystal Palace.
Front foot, elaborate and gung-ho just did not work under Alan Pardew.
For that reason he was sacked.
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Pards paid the ultimate price, making way for Sam Allardyce and his pragmatic, workmanlike football that the club’s hierarchy believe is the best way to keep them in the Premier League.
The powers at Palace desperately wanted the Pardew project to work out.
He was Steve Parish’s man, the coach the Eagles chairman poached from Newcastle in January 2015.
History — what with his extra-time winner for the Eagles in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool — was also on Pardew’s side.
So, too, were the Holmesdale Fanatics, the section of fans who turn Selhurst Park into a bear-pit on matchday.
In return, Pardew was supposed to take Palace to the next level.
With the best-paid playing squad in the club’s history, a return of four wins in 17 Premier League games this season was simply not good enough.
He was called to a meeting with Parish at the club’s Soho offices at the break of dawn yesterday.
They are friends and occasional dinner partners but all that had to be put to one side.
It would have been easy to make a spontaneous, reflex decision after Diego Costa’s header for Chelsea had consigned Palace to their tenth defeat on Saturday.
Instead, Parish mulled it over, weighing up the alternative — Sam Allardyce — before finally sacking Pardew five days later.
Palace are on a run so bad Parish fears they will be relegated at the end of the season.
Something had to change.
Earlier in the week, at the staff Christmas party at swanky London eatery Quaglino’s, the atmosphere was dreadful.
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Successive home defeats, against Manchester United and Chelsea, had seen to that.
Pardew, in attendance with the Palace squad, put a brave face on it. He always does.
The reality, though, is that there was no hiding place from a return of just six Premier League wins in 38 games.
Over the last few months, he has had everything.
Even when he made the fatal error of criticising the club’s billionaire American investors after the 3-0 victory over Southampton on December 3, Pardew was backed.
He knew he made an error of judgment as he walked away from the TV cameras, saying as much to a Palace official on their way to more post-match duties.
In the days that followed Parish did a silky PR job on Pardew’s behalf, insisting that he was talking about some of the smaller shareholders Stateside.
By then it was damage limitation.
Pardew’s side could no longer defend, giving away soft goals during the calamitous 5-4 defeat at Swansea and the topsy-turvy 3-3 draw at Hull.
After the home defeats against United and Chelsea — no matter what their pedigree — Parish could not see a way out under Pardew.
He has spent massive money and seems to have an fixation with French midfielder Yohan Cabaye, 30, who had been his most influential player on Tyneside.
Nice touches, nice player, but he has never quite done it in Palace colours.
A year later, with huge US investment backing his judgment, Pardew went big in the transfer market.
Steve Mandanda (£1.65million), Andros Townsend (£13m), Christian Benteke (£32m) and James Tomkins (£10m) were all enticed with big wages.
Townsend, complaining bitterly of late about his role on the wing, has lost his way, along with his place in the side, under Pardew.
Of the four big summer signings, Benteke is the only one to achieve par.
Despite Palace’s dreadful run, Pardew remained popular and positive. The players were desperate to save him, backing him to the hilt in his final few weeks.
For some reason, they just could not break the spell.
He will need a period of self-reflection now, post- rationalisation after another bad run of form did for him at Palace.
Pardew, 55, needs to work out why it always happens to him — as it did at West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and Newcastle.
When he returns to management, it will be easy for him to convince a board of directors they will benefit from an immediate bounce.
Despite his recent run, his record at Palace still looks good.
He saved them from relegation after Neil Warnock’s disastrous return and followed it a season later by reaching the FA Cup final against Manchester United.
It looked like progress, with Palace firmly established as a Premier League club.
Sadly for Pardew, the next level was beyond him.
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