With less than 48 hours having passed since the end of the 2010/11 season, it appears that Dougie Freedman has decided to start the summer clear-out of the football club by waving goodbye to Claude Davis, Pablo Couago, Gavin Mahon and Dean Austin, all before 2 o’clock this afternoon.
The news, which was swift and rather unexpected, gives some indication as to why Freedman decided to start Counago up front on the final day against Forest, as well as giving some clarity to the reasoning behind bringing Claude on to fill in at the back in Moxey’s absence rather than moving Wright into the back four, which at the time struck me as extremely odd, but now gives the impression of allowing both men to stake their claim for new deals.
It is part and parcel of football that players will be released or sold throughout the footballing pyramid every summer, but for many supporters it doesn’t take away the fact that they may well have become quite attached to the players in question for a multitude of differing reasons.
As a case in point, the release of Claude Davis has triggered outpourings of sadness from many Palace fans, who, although well aware of Claude’s numerous technical shortcomings will openly admit to growing extremely fond of his no nonsense, one man wrecking ball style of defending since he joined the club in 2009.
That’s the strange anomaly with football fans (myself included), whilst a player is under contract, and therefore figuratively “ours” we feel it is more than acceptable to call for him to be dropped, or moan about his lack of composure on the ball and so on, until, out of the blue, he’s gone.
Suddenly, that loveable, frustrating centre back we have all become so accustomed to poking fun is no longer a part of our club, and just as quickly as he became part of the collective consciousness of Palace fans for his calamitous performances, he is no more. It is something which demonstrates very clearly, the finality of professional football, whilst also leaving many feeling slightly let down by the loss of such a big character.
On the other side of the emotional seesaw for most of us was the news that Pablo Counago had also been let go by the club. The Spaniard, who, due to performances so lacking in drive and determination, had regularly drawn screams of derision from the Selhurst faithful, leaves the club with nowhere near the same feeling of good will, with most believing that he was simply here to collect another pay cheque to help him through his careers autumnal years.
It’s not that Pablo was a bad player, far from it, but, one thing that Palace fans tend to demand from the people who represent us is a regular show of effort, drive and determination, something which Counago never appeared capable or willing to do.
The release of Mahon was inevitable, mainly due to the fact that he hasn’t played a minute of football for us since coming in, something which, although I’m sure there are reasons behind it, makes the initial decision to bring him in all the more baffling, perhaps he was just there to bring some more experience to the training ground, unfortunately, I would imagine, we will never find out.
That leaves us with the final departure of the day in Dean Austin, who has been relieved from his role as part of the backroom team supporting Dougie. This move comes with a number of possible reasons behind it, chief of which in my mind being that although he is a club icon in his own right, Deano never really fit in with Dougie’s plans for his coaching staff, having been appointed by George Burley last summer. With the appointments of Lennie Lawrence and Tony Popovic shortly after Freedman was given the top job, the writing appears to have been on the wall regarding this move for some time, and rumours of John Pemberton already being earmarked for a return to the club after joining at the end of last season under Paul Hart, it appears that Dougie has a very definite plan of where he wants the club to move in the next few months.
Hopefully we can get the signings of Anthony Gardner and James Vaughan tied up as well as convincing Neil Danns to put pen to paper on a new deal before too long, allowing us to look towards the new season with excitement and a side that is set up to truly hit the ground running.
For now though, we are all faced with the prospect of a full summer without football and the inevitable boredom that comes with it, leaving the only date on the horizon that fills me with any semblance of hope of getting my Palace fix coming in mid-June when the fixture list is released, giving way to all sorts of plans of potential away days as well as the mouth-watering ties against Brighton.
Yes, it’s going to be a long few months, but as the old saying goes, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” And believe me; I cannot wait until it all starts again...
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