'Fans want the leadership to take responsibility'

Alex Pewter, FYP podcast, external

The banner read: "No shared vision, no structured plan." But far from being about a dismal display of football on Saturday, it was another shot at Crystal Palace's owners.

The club appears to be racking up misfortune after misfortune. A heavy loss to a rival team; injuries to their four best outfield players; unresolved but long-standing squad depth issues in attack; and a manager facing ever-increasing pressure.

While it is best to approach all of this with a cold logic devoid of emotion, that is easier said than done for many.

Roy Hodgson is cutting the figure of a doomed government minister facing either resignation or the sack. While it is feasible he could lead the club to survival, those games aren't going to be played in a vacuum. It will have to take place in a fractured atmosphere with fans lacking the appetite for it.

However, as that protest banner suggested, the problems extend beyond the dugout. Ideally, the focus and issues would be limited to the pitch, but on Sunday, the in-fighting between owners appears to have resurfaced, this time via The Guardian, external.

With one owner, John Textor, either directly or indirectly distancing himself from the hiring and continued employment of Hodgson, more battle lines are being drawn in public between him and chairman Steve Parish.

The quandary now is that the job appears less attractive than two weeks ago. The ideal managerial candidates the club may covet are free to await their full options at the end of the season.

Like a historian writing on the fall of a dynasty, even a plucky mid-table one, it is rarely a single event that sends everything crashing down.

This predicament is entirely self-inflicted, and fans want the leadership to take responsibility.