Silva says fate was sealed by pre-season fiasco

“We tried to do too many things in January, but it’s not good to be signing six or seven players in January. You should be doing that in June, in pre-season. You need to prepare better.”

Silva said Andrea Ranocchia’s horrible mistake, which gifted Crystal Palace the opening goal, was the key moment in their 4-0 defeat at Selhurst Park.

“We gave them a goal and everything was easy for them after that,” he said.

Palace manager Sam Allardyce, said keeping this side up was his “hardest” challenge yet.

“I said to myself this would be the hardest one, given the quality of the teams we had to play in the runin,” said Allardyce, whose side have faced, and fared well against, the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City in the last six weeks.

“Quick changes behind the scenes, and the concentration on the recruitment and transfer market was one of the big elements of our turnaround,” Allardyce said.

“The acquisition of the players made us better defensively, which was the weakest part of the team. They were conceding so many goals when I arrived.”

He added: “We were all very nervous going into the game today, but we used those nerves in a positive way.

“I would not want to keep fighting relegation at the end of every season. It is about building for the future and trying to make sure you are not in that position again.”

Hull City manager Marco Silva said the club’s ownerswners must learn the lessons of their eir calamitous start to this campaign n as he failed to save them from relegation. egation.

Former manager nager Steve Bruce quit the he club in pre-season in frustration at the lack of new recruits, and his replacement Mike Phelan begann the season with just 13 fit senior players.ers.

“It is a sad day for our fans,” said id Silva (right). “They did not deserve what has happened this season. ason.

“Now the most important thing is for the club to understand what they did in a bad way, to prepare.

“I will give the board and chairman my opinion,opinion about what they need to do d differently to make sure this does not happen [again].”

Silva, who signed an 18-month18- month deal with a relegation breakbrea clause on his arrival in January,J refused to talk aboutabou his own future, but it is surely unlikely he will followfollo the club to the Championship.Champio

“I will talk to the board and the chairman first,” he said. “For me, it is easy what the club needs to do differently. We lost in pre-season when we were preparing.