Sir Neil achieves legendary status. Dougie goes off the charts.

If you'd have told me five years ago that the man pictured at the top of this post would become an all time Selhurst legend, I reckon I'd still be laughing now. Seriously. I - along with 99% of other football fans (not to mention officials) - saw this generously-beaked Northerner as one of the game's all time bell-ends. Of course, much of this vitriol had to do with the fact that he had an uncanny knack of getting one over on us, but I digress. Aggressive, appallingly biased, deeply unsporting and infamously whinge-tastic, he made for quite the pantomime villain.

Of course, I've long since given up trying to convince any of my mates that he is anything other than one or all of the above. Step into any Palace pub this Saturday however, and you'll hear nothing (sorry, nowt) but gushing praise for the great man. Put simply, the job he's done since replacing the hapless Peter Taylor has been nothing short of outstanding. Shoestring would be a favourable way of describing the budget he's been working on, and yet we've seen immense improvement on the pitch, no more so than when he took us to the brink of Wembley back in 2008. Now that everything's gone hopelessly Pete Tong, his presence will be invaluable; not just in terms of our prospects on the pitch but, more importantly, by installing that never-say-die, backs against the wall attitude that we'll need in order to get out of this debacle in one piece. The announcement today that he will be sticking by the club throughout the admin period (alongside the administrator's apparent desire to keep him here...) should be met with unreserved delight from all Palace fans. With Neil in charge (and with the dream team of Curley and blogger extrodinaire Mick Jones - more on them in future posts), I've got no doubts that we'll beat the odds and retain our Championship status. After all, who wouldn't perform in the face of an almighty bollocking such as the one below:

Talking of legends, they surely don't come much bigger than Dougie Freedman. News filtered through today that Sir Doug had taken the time out to comment on our current situation, through the CPFC Trust's website.

The message - found here: http://www.cpstrust.org.uk/news/article/38 - will no doubt bring a lump to the throat of all but the most cold-hearted of Eagles. His continued use of 'we' and references to 'our club' show just how deeply the man cares about Palace. Save for leaping in a time machine, pulling on the red and blue and doing a Stockport, I can't see how I could love (in a manly, back-slapping sort of way, obviously) the man anymore. Doug, on behalf of all Palace fans, we salute you.

Dan