PARISH DETERMINED TO AVOID DROP FEAR

FRANK de Boer has been instructed to end the “anxiety” and “nearunbearable pressure” that descends every year at Crystal Palace.

The Dutchman was unveiled as the club’s new manager, signing a threeyear contract to succeed Sam Allardyce following the latter’s resignation.

De Boer has revealed plans to implement a more expansive brand of football but arrives with chairman Steve Parish desperate to avoid the relegation struggle they have experienced every season since their promotion in 2013.

Parish spoke at the conclusion of the 2016/17 campaign about the need for Palace to finish in the top half of the Premier League, and at De Boer’s u nv e i l i n g s a i d : “T h e pressure (of relegation) is almost unbearable.

“Everyone says you get the parachute money which was always 55% of the TV money, so it used to be £10 million, then £20m, now it is £45m or £55m. Where will it go in the next TV cycle?

“Some people i n this room won’t have a job if we get relegated. We have 400,000 fans on our database, the fans’ hopes and dreams, fears and jobs rely on it. I have been here seven years; everything hinges on it.

“(Club co-owners) Josh (Harris) and David (Blitzer): for t hem t he stress i s almost unbearable, but it is our j ob to see through those moments and t o steer us away from danger.”