How Pierre Sage is fighting for his Crystal Palace job

Pierre Sage’s Crystal Palace reign has been defined as much by politics off the pitch as problems on it. The League Cup victory over Fulham finally felt like a night of defiance – both from the Frenchman and the travelling fans, many of whom still believe he can turn their season around. Sage’s future hinged on results this week and he is not going out without a fight. Palace are into the quarter-finals despite making 10 changes, putting Ben Chilwell at centre-back and giving Cheick Doucoure his first runout since January 2025. Throughout the season his attitude has impressed. He is well-liked around Selhurst Park and while predecessor Oliver Glasner was popular but volatile, Sage is viewed as a much more easygoing character. That makes the decision facing chairman Steve Parish that bit harder. The reality is that Palace are reluctant to sack him, but their hand could yet be forced if Saturday’s trip to resurgent Tottenham results in a third straight Premier League defeat. There are conflicting views as to why Sage has run into trouble so early on. The prevailing mood is that Sage has been badly let down by chairman Parish and sporting director Matt Hobbs. At the same time, others felt he has been supported as much as possible. As one source pointed out, Palace tied down goalkeeper Dean Henderson to a new deal and crucially, managed to keep hold of Adam Wharton in a summer when he was widely expected to leave. That was not entirely of the club’s own doing. The mega offers anticipated for Wharton did not materialise in a summer when he was a controversial omission from Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad. Liverpool cooled their interest, Manchester City prioritised Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi and Manchester United opted for Carlos Baleba.A disastrous summer Keeping Wharton was a coup – but little else went right. A long-term successor to Maxence Lacroix was never found after his move to Chelsea and Malick Fofana, who Sage desperately wanted after managing the winger at Lyon, ended up joining Sunderland in a last-minute U-turn on deadline day. Palace have the worst defence in the league (Photo: Getty) In fact the void left by Marc Guehi’s January exit is still being felt – a gap Palace chose to plug with loan signings Axel Disasi, 18-year-old Honest Ahanor and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has only been fit enough to start two games. Hobbs arrived from Wolves with a big reputation for scouring the South American markets and finding bargain deals with the potential for high sell-ons, bringing with him a wealth of experience leaning on data at Molineux. That expertise has not translated. £73m was spent on Dwight McNeil, Anan Khalaili, Quinten Timber and Zavier Gozo; only Sunderland and Bournemouth spent less this summer. Palace were having to row back on January missteps, selling Brennan Johnson at a £20m loss after just six months. Jorgen Strand Larsen has just four goals since his arrival from Wolves. Losing faith that Sage can fix defence Then there is the chaos at the other end of the pitch. When animal rights charity Peta recently described bald eagle mascot Phoenix as looking “frightened, disoriented and panicked”, they could very well have been talking about Palace’s back line. The 5-0 humiliation at Brighton left them with statistically the worst defence in the Premier League. The calamity of three goals conceded in 10 minutes against their biggest rivals was not seen as a one-off, but a recurring symptom of a back three that has struggled when Chris Richards has been forced to play in the middle. Disasi too has had a difficult start. There were more positive signs in Europe against Besiktas and still Palace could not hold onto a lead against 10 men. Sympathy with Sage There has been a degree of sympathy with Sage, not least because he inherited difficult circumstances. He began the season without an injured Jean-Philippe Mateta, who tried to rip up his contract by claiming the final year was invalid. Ismaila Sarr’s move to Liverpool then collapsed, leaving the Senegal forward devastated. The season began with another Mateta storm (Photo: Getty) Sage has done as much as he can to keep the peace and ease what was always going to be a difficult transition period after taking over from Glasner. He even kept on several of the Austrian’s backroom team so as to cause as little disruption as possible. Crystal Palace next manager candidates It has not helped that he was never the board’s first choice. Their interest in Andoni Iraola towards the end of last season was well-documented before he replaced Arne Slot at Liverpool. Thomas Frank and Sean Dyche were also considered. Both are in the frame to take over this time around if Sage departs in the coming weeks, with Dyche the early frontrunner. Dyche has been out of work since leaving Nottingham Forest earlier this year, while Frank was sacked by Tottenham in January. Read more Crystal Palace: This cricket club survived a WWII rocket – now Palace threaten its survival Kat Lucas: Thomas Tuchel was right about Cole Palmer Kieran McKenna is also a candidate but left Ipswich in the summer with the aim of spending more time with his young family. An approach for Victor Matos would mean paying Swansea considerable compensation for the remaining four years of his contract, just months after paying Lens around £4m to release Sage. Just four months later, he risks becoming one of the shortest-serving Palace managers in history after Frank de Boer and Sam Allardyce.