Simon Jordan still being an arse six months after leaving Palace. Who’d have thunk it?

The former Eagles chairman threw his toys out of his orange pram last week at a creditors’ meeting, angry that CPFC 2010′s offer of 1p in the £1 wasn’t enough.

SJ reckoned the club could have been sold for more and hadn’t been marketed properly. This coming from the man who sold t-shirts claiming he’d bought Selhurst in 2005 when it became painfully obvious – especially now – that he had done nothing of the sort.

Or the man who oversaw an organisation that charged £30 for below-average second tier football, £40 for crappy replica shirts and had little to no understanding of its own customers.

Jordan will only receive £78,000 of the £7.8 million he has lost in Palace, and this is sad for anyone, but you can’t say the man didn’t have it coming: personally guaranteeing loans made in Palace’s name, mostly to an aggressive hedge fund company with a history or sending companies to the wall.

Still, after calming down a little, Jordan has promised worried fans he won’t chuck a spanner in the works of a takeover that appears to be very close.

‘The administrators didn’t want me on the [creditors'] committee – but I am and I need to make sure I help get the best deal for creditors,” he told the Daily Mail.

“But I don’t want to make things difficult for the administrators. I have seen first hand how much this club means to people. I don’t want to be the one who destroys Crystal Palace Football Club.”

The question is, do we believe him? He doesn’t exactly have a great track record of telling the truth. The Selhurst farce aside, he also promised home shirts would last at least two years so we “weren’t like Man Utd”. That didn’t happen.

He promised an overhaul of the food service at the ground. That didn’t happen.

So pardon me Mr Jordan if I take this with a pinch of salt.

“Okay, a large part of my wealth has been lost in this football club. In the end I got done over.

“But it will not be by my hand that Crystal Palace fails to agree a CVA or suffer any more sanctions. But I do think there is a better deal out there for creditors – whether that is the case remains to be seen.

“I always felt the difficulty for the administrator was what division the club would be playing in next season. There is now way the administrator could

have properly marketed the club without knowing which division they’d be in next season.

“I’ve always had reservations about some of the decisions the administrator has made.

“Since the administrators were called in, they have run out of funding, not managed to get any more funding, only found one bidder for the club and not sold their assets for full value, namely selling Victor Moses for next to nothing.”

“‘I’ve done my balls in for this club.”

Ouch. Still, it wouldn’t be unfair to deny the man some bitter resentment. He has, after all, lost is wealth and credibility with the Palace fans. I’m not sure which is more important to him.

“It will be very difficult for me to swallow if the club is bought for a fraction of the price. If that isn’t reason enough to be bitter, then how about this..?

“There was never really a place for me in football. I rubbed people up the wrong way, not because I wanted to but because I was prepared to fight for my football club.

“Am I emotionally detached from the club now? Well, I’ve not been to a game since the club went into administration.

“But at the same time, if you’d have watched me during the game at Sheffield Wednesday when we escaped relegation then you’d probably say “No”.

“In a certain respect I am detached. But I know that I’ve owned the club, support the club, fought and battled for the club every season.”

We’ll see, Mr Jordan. We’ll see…

It was the job no-one wanted. Not even Steve Coppell wanted to come back to Crystal Palace to try and steer them away from relegation to League One. The club was in a mess; 10 points deducted plummeting the side from play-off contenders to relegation battlers, star man Victor Moses gone, no takeover bids, and a side shattered by the administration news and short on confidence. Anyone taking on the job would be mad, surely?

Well, maybe Paul Hart is mad, but he managed to complete the job all Palace fans were hoping he could. It was only a short-term deal until the end of the season, but like Alan Ladd’s Shane he has ridden into town, saved the day, and rides off into the sunset, cementing himself into Palace’s history as an instant legend.

Championed as a coach who excels working with youth team Hart has been at his most successful working on a shoestring budget at Nottingham Forest. His budget at Palace was more ‘no strings attached’ losing most of his squad to injuries and suspensions over his two months in charge.

And he often found himself coming under criticism from Palace fans for negative tactics as the team slid towards the relegation zone.

But when it counted, he got results. The draw at Wednesday secured the Championship status for another year, and possibly the club’s future. The 3-1 win at Watford was a massive as was the excellent home win over Preston. Each time Hart got the tactics spot on.

And yesterday he combatted everything Wednesday threw at Palace expertly. Going 4-4-2 was spot on, bringing on Alassande N’Diaye was a magic move, the big Frenchman was immense and helped break up Wednesday attacks as well as forging forward with Alan Lee.

And in Hart’s management team he has two aces – John Pemberton, who got great results as caretaker at Forest, and fans’ favourite Dougie Freedman, who – while still earning his coaching badges – gave the Palace fans a face on the touchline they wanted to see, and clearly a man who cared as much about Palace’s status as they did.

So, farewell Paul hart – it’s clear you probably won’t be here next season, and you were only ever going to be that guy who was here when everything was screwed, but you did it. You kept us up and for that you will always be revered here. Thank you.

Read James’ brilliant blog

It seems a bit unfair that speculation is already mounting as to who will be Fabio Capello’s successor as England boss? Especially as the doughy-faced Italian hasn’t had the chance to lead the Three Lions through a proper competition yet, and has a record so far most managers would kill for.

But the pressures of the England job – and when I say pressures I mean the unwarranted press attention, the hyperbolic predicitions before each tournament, and the contradictory analysis of every little aspect of the job – make it a less-than-envious role.

And one that has forced a handful of big names to walk away with their reputations in tatters. Far from saying this will happen to Fabio, who has impressed so far, the Engish press will always be looking forward to the next step.

As usual a combination of Englishmen with limited success and big name foreigners get banded around but one name definitely deserves serious consideration – Roy Hodsgon.

He fulfills most elements – he’s England, and not in the limp Steve McClaren sort of way, but the trustworthy, could-be-your-uncle, south London boy-done-good sort of way that we all love.

But he’s spent a large portion of his career abroad – managing in Denmark, Italy, Sweden -, has an extensive knowledge of football on the continent and speaks a variety of languages.

Plus he has managed to negotiate a route to the Europa League semi-finals with a relatively average Fulham side, cannily beating holders Shaktar Donetsk and Italian giants Juventus.

The man has tactical knowledge to rival the best in Italy, and is a man manager of the highest order – rediscovering form in failed players like Damien Duff and Bobby Zamora.

Plus the man – who for some reason bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Sir Bobby Robson – and like Bob, is respected throughout the game from most quarters.

So, when Fabio does have enough of the England job, Uncle Roy should be the man to fill his shoes.

The pressures of being a Premiership manager aren’t a secret – the mood status of thousands of fans resting on your shoulders, juggling the egos of 30 prima donas, probing journalists, and managing the bank balances of multi-million pound businesses can be a testing existence.

But is it also bad for your health? Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce is the latest Premiership manager to require surgery to correct a dodgy ticker, raising more questions about the mental and physical state of football professionals.

Allardyce follows managers like Gerard Houllier, Graeme Souness and Joe Kinnear into the operating room. Kinnear underwent a triple heart bypass in February this year after only five months in the job at Newcastle. Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had an emergency 11-hour heart bypass in 2001, probably brought on by the heart-stopping 5-4 Uefa Cup victory over Alaves that season.

Alex Ferguson was fitted with a pacemaker in 2004 and it’s a little know fact that is face was actually the same colour as his heart at the time. 1992 was a bad year for managers hearts as Barnet boss Barry Fry and Liverpool manager Graeme Souness both suffered heart attacks.

Allardyce we miss his side’s game with his former club, Bolton today, as well as the midweek fixture at Fulham and next Saturday’s visit of Stoke, but Rovers fans will forgive him his absence if he can make a full recovery.

An environment that thrives on success, at any cost, is always going to induce stress, especially where millions, nay billions, of pounds are involved. Through with an ever intrusive press and fans passionate enough to sometimes write threatening letters to players and managers, and it’s no surprise some professionals body’s can’t take it.

We’ve sadly seen the rigors of the game, ever increasing, taking the lives of a handful of footballers over the last few years. It almost begs the question if it is worth it. Bill Shankley may have famously said that football was more important than life but he was wrong.

Despite not being the most popular club, or manager, the world of football will be sending their best wishes to Allardyce this week, but judging by the other managers above who have suffered one point becomes glaringly obvious – for the sake of your health, do not manager Liverpool.

Wining your first four league games straight is championship winning form in anyone’s book. Yes, there are still eight months to go of a long, trying season, but with 15 points from 18 surely it is time to start taking Mark Hughes’s multi-million pound team seriously.

Despite spending more money on new players than Elton John does on new glasses during the summer, Mark Hughes still struggled to convince football folk his team were serious title contenders.

But with results that are hard to ignore his side are in danger of mounting a serious challenge for the Premier league crown.

Hughes seems to have paid little regard to reputation or public image, freely signing players that most football fans seem to hate – including the like of Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Gareth Barry – but his team of loners are starting to gel into a quality outfit.

Adebayor, out of form, sometimes out of position, and out of favour from most of the Emirates crowd, has banged in six goals in five games for the blue half of Manchester (all this before introducing his foot to Robin Van Persie’s face) and seems to have found a new lease of life.

Carlos Tevez is finally playing for a team that wants him and despite having to wait until playing Crystal Palace for his first goal, looks to be settling.

Following the vain of someone playing Football Manager and signing all the best players around for stupid money, Hughes has nabbed some of the Premier League’s most consistent performers of recent years in Barry and Joleon Lescott, but the pair are showing why they were so highly considered.

There is long to go, and with City’s first defeat in a thrilling derby game against United now registered, it remains to be seen how serious a challenge they can mount. But ignore them at your peril.

We live in a weird footballing world. Where some teams struggle to stay afloat and yet others have so much cash they are positively overflowing with notes. Doesn’t seem fair does it?

Fans of Notts County could be forgiven for not caring because something is definitely happening at their club. First Sven Goran Ericksson joined the ranks and now Sol Campbell has come on board.

Critics (which is basically everyone) are rolling out the usual clichés about money running football and they aren’t unfounded, but should we give Campbell, Ericksson et all the benefit of the doubt?

“I am delighted to sign with Notts County and I am genuinely excited by what the club is trying to achieve,” Campbell told a less-than-impressed news conference.

“I feel I still have a lot to offer as a footballer and hope to repay the confidence that Notts County has shown in me.”

No doubt the 34-year-old ex-England defender is very excited about what is happening. And it’s not unfair for a player who has had something of a lack of a challenge in his career for a few years to want to take on something different.

But a lower-league challenge is one thing. A lower-league challenge with shed loads of money is quite another.

And it is hard for many fans to take when their own club has suffered financial woes (which at the time of writing is most Football League clubs). Time and again it’s been agreed clubs need to live within their means to stop financially imploding, so to see a team so blatantly shelling out (alongside another higher profile club) is disheartening. It’s like someone on Championship Manager cheating and giving themselves millions of extra pounds. We’ve all done it and yet when we win the league it’s never quite satisfying enough.

Something tells me Notts County fans will be experiencing that soon.