Ian Holloway
Reuters

Ian Holloway has parted ways with Crystal Palace by mutual consent.

The 50-year-old took over the reins of the club last November, and led Palace to the play-offs before winning a place in the Barclays Premier League. However, a slew of bad results, which include seven losses form their last eight games, persuaded chairman Steve Parish to part ways.

Holloway, in his last press conference for the club, revealed that he had tried his best to take Palace further in the division but his new signings failed to fit in to the spirit of the squad. Palace are currently 19<sup>th in the league with three points and host Arsenal this weekend, as their road to recovery looks bleaker by the day.

Only Sunderland, with one point, are in a worse position and Holloway hopes that the new man who arrives is able to make an immediate impact.

Tony Pulis is currently favourite to take over the post, having been relieved of his duties at Stoke City over the summer.

"The chance to work with Crystal Palace was so exciting for me and still is. But you've got to look at what I wanted to do and we've almost had too much success to try and carry on that way. You need to be able to shut up shop in this division. With the changes in the squad we have lost some of the spirit we had from last season that got us up. Maybe we changed too much too quickly," Holloway told the club's official website

"I didn't value enough the spirit of the group that helped us get here. I brought players in because I had to give them the chance to stay in this division but I lost that spirit. I owe it to the lads to admit that.

"I'm not saying my signings aren't good enough. But my new signings need to buy into the club like last year's bunch did. And hopefully the new man can do that. Now with me out the way, all this will stop and the new man will have a chance to start again. But I believe the club is in a fantastic position. I'm very proud of the work I've done here with Steve [Parish]," he concluded.

Barclays