Speaking on the Beautiful Game Podcast, Jason Puncheon has claimed that he didn’t want to leave Crystal Palace when he did.
The 34-year-old had been a mainstay at Palace for a long time, but upon Roy Hodgson’s arrival at Selhurst Park he was frozen out of the squad and forced to find another club.
Puncheon says that he wishes things had worked out differently, and claims he didn’t want to leave the club when he did.
“For me that’s the most disappointing thing, that I never really got a chance. If I got a chance then I’d understand, but I’m the type of person who if you put a challenge to me, I’ll come back fighting, and I was never really given the challenge or the chance. That’s why I took the chance to go to Huddersfield, and at the time I didn’t really want to leave Palace, but things happen and you move on,” Puncheon said.
“I was at that club for six and a half years, and it obviously became my home. You know, everybody around the building. I was close with everyone around there, and then for a manager to come in and say that and then you’re just lost and players are asking you questions on why aren’t you playing, and they’re saying you should be playing.”
You can understand where Puncheon is coming from here.
The midfielder enjoyed probably the best spell of his career at Palace, and he was forced out without really being given a shot to establish himself under the new manager.
As he says, these things happen in football, and you have to move on eventually, but this must have been a bitter pill to swallow at the time.
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