Hart Takes Charge Of Palace

3 Mar 2010

Crystal Palace have yesterday announced the appointment of Paul Hart as their new manager after Neil Warnock left to join Queens Park Rangers.

Hart had himself just left QPR after just 5 games in charge and will be hoping that his spell in charge of the Eagles is a more successful one even if his contract is, for the moment, only until the end of the season.

Hart will be pleased to be back in football and Palace will be hoping that Hart's experience in working under a tight budget, he recently managed cash strapped Portsmouth, will help the club who are currently in administration.

Hart stated in his first press conference“I like a challenge and this is a big challenge but it is one that I felt, after talking to (administrator) Brendan (Guilfoyle) and (chief executive) Phil (Alexander) that the support would be there because we're going to need everybody behind us.
 
"And there's only one objective - and that's to stay in this division."
Palace are currently battling against relegation after their fall into administration saw them docked 10 points by the Football League, ruining their previously achievable aims of reaching the play-offs.
This change in circumstance does not, however, faze Hart.

“I had that feeling, I think. We have only one goal and it's been spelt out that this club deserves to be in this division, it doesn't deserve to go out - there's been a lot thrown at it over the last six or seven months - and the players don't deserve it either.
 
"We need to stay, deserve to stay and that's our goal."
It had been reported that Palace legend Steve Coppell, who lead the club to Wembley twice in previous spells at the club, would be taking control again.

Guilfoyle was adamant, though that Hart was their choice for the right reasons, stating: "I don't want to get into specifics of who we spoke to and who we didn't speak to but we trawled the market of all the available (managers), took soundings and the result of that was the appointment of Paul Hart and his team,"

Palace are 81/50 to be relegated with Betfair.

All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change