“Ian Wright joining Arsenal was a real body blow for Crystal Palace – we could have been one of the big boys had he stayed at Selhurst Park!” Steve Coppell on his sliding doors moment in management
When a football manager has little or no budget to work with, their other skills are brought to the fore.
That was certainly the case for Steve Coppell during his first spell as Crystal Palace boss, when his tenure was built on necessity, ingenuity and the ability to spot talent where others weren’t looking.
With little money available, Coppell was able to sign and transform a collection of relative unknown players into household names, and would come agonisingly close to landing the club’s first major honour and to playing European football.
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Coppell on losing Ian Wright
The likes of Ian Wright, Alan Pardew and Gareth Southgate all made a name for themselves under Coppell, who admits that he had to think outside of the box.
“First and foremost it was a necessity,” Coppell recalls to FourFourTwo. “When I first went to Palace we had no money. My first year in management was the blind leading the blind. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
“We made our training ground open to non-league managers and they became our scouts. Ian Wright was a no-brainer. All the non-league players had an ‘I’ll-show-them’ mentality and that’s what we were looking for.”
Ian Wright was the figurehead for how Coppell was able to create a new culture around the club. But after finishing third in 1991, the striker would depart in what Coppell sees as a defining moment for Palace.
“Almost immediately Ian Wright went to Arsenal,” Coppell continues. “We had a great relationship with Ian and he could have left a couple of years before but agreed to sign a new deal. He’d done well by us but we both knew the situation and we weren’t going to stand in his way.
“To a certain extent that was a real body blow – I really do think we could have been one of the big boys for a couple of years.
“For your best player to leave to fulfil his ambitions sends a message to the other players. It became a difficult couple of years.”
As a player, Coppell earned 42 England caps and, following his success in the Palace dugout, his name was soon bandied around as a potential successor to Three Lions boss Graham Taylor in 1993, following England’s failure to qualify for the following summer’s World Cup.
“On occasion I was mentioned, but never approached,” Coppell recalls. ”It never really interested me that much.
“The Palace job was massive and so intense that I think I would have been unfulfilled as a national team manager.”
