Crystal Palace sporting director Dougie Freedman 'doesn't care' what fans say on social media

Blind eye: Freedman has come under fire from supporters following two disappointing transfer windows
Getty Images
Jack Rosser @JackRosser_21 February 2020

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has defended the work of sporting director Dougie Freedman.

The former Palace player and manager, who has been in his current role since August 2017, has come under fire from supporters following two disappointing transfer windows.

Palace have failed to bring in cover at full-back in successive windows despite the £50million sale of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United last summer.

Their January move for West Brom right-back Nathan Ferguson collapsed late on deadline day over a complication in the 19-year-old's medical, though the Eagles expect to complete the signing of Ferguson when he becomes a free agent in the summer.

The club also agreed a deal for Genoa striker Christian Kouame, but that transfer fell through when the 22-year-old suffered a cruciate ligament injury.

"I can tell you now Dougie's most important quality is that he doesn't care what someone on social media says," said Parish.

"There is no one at the football club that is working harder for the football club than Dougie Freedman. Sometimes the best job you do in that position is to keep the ones that aren't going to work out, out.

A January move for Nathan Ferguson fell through
Getty Images

"It is easy to cave and sign some players just to keep everyone happy, but that is not going to give us the longevity that we want.

"Dougie does the work and we have to focus on the work, what we need to do with the constraints we have got, the money we have got, with the manager.

"We have to work together to make sure we get the right answers."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in