Pierre Sage has been offered somewhat of a lifeline by Crystal Palace, according to a report from Ed Aarons. 

The story suggests that Sage will be allowed to manage the upcoming games against both Fulham in the Carabao Cup and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. 

It also hints that a number of leading players within the Palace squad have sent messages of support to the French manager. 

It’s always a brave game to play when clubs put a set date on their manager’s potential sacking, and one that doesn’t always pay off. 

When doing so, the context of the games must also be taken into consideration, and it feels like a game away from home against a Tottenham side fresh off the back of a 2-0 win away at Stamford Bridge against bitter rivals Chelsea might not be the fairest of ultimatums. 

Whilst Tottenham’s current predicament can be taken into consideration when assessing the possible outcomes from the game, it would be naive to suggest a trip to their ground should guarantee any form of result. 

Under Roberto De Zerbi, their performances have improved drastically, and it’s only now that the results are beginning to show through. 

Spurs spent a staggering €366 million in the summer, dwarfing the €85 million spent by Palace. They have a very good team, with great players and will come into the game with a huge boost in confidence after such a good result against Chelsea. 

There’s also the huge benefit that Spurs don’t actually play in the Carabao Cup this week after they were knocked out by Liverpool in the previous round. 

This means that Palace will, once again, go into a game with significantly less rest than their opponent, Palace of course facing Fulham on Wednesday evening. 

Unfortunately, the decision makers at Palace have made their decision that despite all of those factors, a defeat against Spurs would be grounds to sack Sage. 

As reported, a number of players have supposedly sent messages of support to Sage, but it might be a better approach if they can simply stop making so many mistakes on the pitch. 

There will be a large number of contributing factors should Sage lose his job, but one of the standouts, and the one that’s had the most significant impact on results is the lack of conviction on the pitch from the players. 

The number of individual mistakes this season has been difficult to watch. Palace have made a huge 4 errors leading to goals, as well as 7 leading to big chances for the opposition.

Whether it be moments of madness like Axel Disasi’s red card against Ipswich or players stepping out of position and leaving strikers unmarked in the box, the reason that Palace have lost so many games is not entirely on Sage, but he will be the one to pay. 

Away to Brighton it was the players who lost the game, not Sage. The opening ten minutes was a disgraceful performance, and whilst there has been improvement over the last week, once again a spell in the second half against Newcastle meant the game was well lost by the time they started playing again. 

Those things can only be attributed to the players on the pitch, and they need to do better, because so far, they’ve let their manager down.