A Bond like departure means no Crystal Pulis

Last updated : 15 August 2014 By Tony Scholes
30 years since John Bond left

Pulis replaced Ian Holloway in late November last year with Palace looking doomed, but an amazing turnaround saw them finish in 11th place, the first time they've ever survived a Premier League season.

There had always been suggestions of a strained relationship between Pulis and owner Steve Parish but yesterday, just as they were completing the signing of Martin Kelly from Liverpool, there were suggestions that all really wasn't very well.

Kelly said on completing his move that he was looking forward to working with Pulis but by yesterday evening the manager was locked in talks that ended with him leaving the club by mutual consent so close to the start of the season.

They've put Keith Millen in temporary charge for tomorrow with the latest betting suggesting that Malky Mackay, ousted at Cardiff last season, is the most likely to take over.

It was a real reminder of when we parted company with John Bond some 30 years ago. We'd ended the previous season in disappointing fashion, but Bond had brought a string of new players in which included Neil Grewcock, Barry Powell, Alan Taylor, Kevin Hird and Peter Hampton.

There were no hints of any problems as we played the pre-season games but just days before the season started there was breaking news that he might go. We sacked him on the Monday night just five days before the big kick off against Plymouth, handing the job, temporarily initially, to his number two John Benson.

Last week we asked via a voting poll who you thought would be the first Premier League manager to go. Sam Allardyce was the clear winner with Pulis polling just 0.6% of that vote. How wrong we all were.