Palmer goes

Last updated : 20 September 2003 By Tony Scholes

The manager in question is Carlton Palmer, although the word manager should be used very loosely indeed in his case, and after 22 months in the hot seat in the Land of the Unprofessionals he finds himself looking for employment elsewhere.

I always suspected that Palmer wouldn’t go quietly, after all he arrived in a blaze of noise hurling insults at previous manager, ex-Claret Andy Kilner, for the apparent mess he had made during his period as manager.

For those with much knowledge of football it was pretty damned obvious that Kilner had initially done a good job but had to contend with the fact that Hell-Wood of the Unprofessionals kept selling his players to raise cash.

In a short space of time Kilner lost the services of Brian Carrigan, Tony Dinning, Ian Moore, Carlo Nash and Kevin Cooper to balance the books and was only able to bring in cheap (or free) replacements.

His eye for a bargain saw the arrival of a player who Palmer would be able to sell on for a large profit – Shefki Kuqi who was signed from FC Jokerit.

In the end though, with them bottom of Division One, Kilner had to go and Hell-Wood stunned the football world by appointing Carlton Palmer. Even some of his ex-colleagues were in a state of shock and Bolton’s Paul Warhurst (they had been at Sheffield Wednesday together) spoke out saying that Palmer was the last person on earth he could ever imagine as a manager. Warhurst might not be the greatest of players but he is clearly a good judge of managers.

Palmer made a good start with a draw at Watford and an unlikely home win against Norwich but it was to be downhill from there. Despite his claims that he would keep them up they actually went down and were a massive 23 points from safety.

But by then Palmer was promising the fans an instant return with an immediate promotion. That didn’t materialise and they didn’t quite make it although to be fair they were only eight places and 26 points away from getting into the play offs.

It was a surprise because he had been ever so astute in the transfer market and Ben Burgess was brought in for £400,000. In a fantastic piece of business from Palmer he was able to sell him for £80,000 only eight months later.

This is the year now though when he is going to bring them back up, he told us so himself, but when the axe fell yesterday they were in the bottom four with only one win all season. All in all they have played a total of 92 games under his management and only 25, yes 25, have been won with double that number having been lost.

There can be few if any managers during that period who have had a worse record and yet he walked away, with the usual noise, claiming that his dismissal had nothing to do with football but was a political decision.

His comments are worth repeating, he really thought he was doing a good job, and he said, "I'm obviously disappointed. It's more to do with politics than football, but I don't want to elaborate. Over the last five matches we've won one, drawn three and lost one so on that basis every manager in the First, Second and Third Division should get the sack.

"But I've built up a very good young side and the supporters and staff at the club have been fantastic. We've come on leaps and bounds and the club is in a much better state than when I arrived a couple of years ago. I'm a proud person and I think I have done good things for the club."

The claim that he leaves the club in a better state than he found it is an incredible one, just as incredible as the same words from Andrew Watson when he left Burnley for Huddersfield with the Clarets in a financial mess. No Palmer you have not left the club in a much better state at all. You have left them in the 2nd Division relegation places, the lowest position they have held for a number of years.

Some people were surprised though and one former Football League manager was only this week singing the praises of Carlton Palmer and said just four days before the axe fell,

"My old pal Carlton Palmer reached the top as a player through determination and self belief. I reckon he's taking those qualities into his management career. I watched Stockport come back from 2-0 down at Sheffield Wednesday to grab a deserved 2-2 draw. Carlton always stuck at it on the pitch and that's what his team does now. So don't be surprised if he takes Stockport to the play offs this season."

Surely another manager wouldn’t really think that would they? Then I heard it was said by Chris Waddle. Does any more need to be said?