Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish insists he will take full responsibility if the Eagles are relegated.
Chairman says he is responsible if Eagles go down
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says he will take full responsibility if the Eagles drop down to League One.
Parish headed the consortium that bought the Selhurst Park outfit following their dramatic final-day Championship survival at Sheffield Wednesday last term.
But the Eagles have continued to struggle this season and currently sit in 21st place in the table - three points above the drop zone - ahead of their crucial clash at fellow strugglers Doncaster on Friday.
Palace legend Dougie Freedman replaced George Burley as boss in January and Parish insists he will not blame either manager if the Eagles go down, although he retains plenty of hope they will survive.
Responsible
Parish told the
London Evening Standard: "If we get relegated, I will feel responsible.
"One thing that mystifies me about football is that people who own a club never take responsibility for anything other than the good things that happen.
"If we go down, I won't blame George Burley, Dougie Freedman, or any of the players. I made the decisions, along with the other owners of the club, to bring in the people that we did to run the football side, and to give them the budget we did.
"I will feel gutted, and I will turn that responsibility back on itself and make sure that I am responsible for getting us promoted again.
"Football is a terrible blame game, and I don't buy into the fact that it is George's fault, for example.
"We're all focused on relegation not being the reality, but whatever happens, I have to be a part of sorting this club out."
Freedman safe
Parish added that Freedman will stay in his post whatever happens, believing he is the right man to be at the helm for the long term.
He added: "Relegation obviously wouldn't be great, but it certainly wouldn't be terminal. Financially we have planned for every eventuality.
"We don't want to be playing League One football, but there would still be a club there for the community, there will still be something for the fans to do on a Saturday and we would work hard to get promoted.
"It would affect our plans as gates would go down and revenue would be affected, but the new stadium and training ground are separate issues that will continue regardless.
"And Dougie is our man, absolutely. Dougie has been brought in to fix this situation, but he has also been brought in because we think he is the right long-term man for the club.
"I want it to be the case that the only reason he leaves is that Real Madrid offer him a job and he can't turn it down.
"But right now we need to fight this relegation battle and regroup in the summer so we can start to look upwards, maybe towards the play-offs. We have to win games, but I think we can."
