Tony Pulis has explained why there was hesitation taking the Crystal Palace job last season.
Pulis walked out on Palace on the eve of the season.
When the call came from co-chairman Steve Parish some five months after his split with Stoke he had his concerns.
"I met Steve three times but I wasn't convinced by certain things and in the end I spoke to Peter Coates (his former chairman at Stoke) and Sir Alex (Ferguson)," he told the Daily Mail. "I spoke to others but only Peter and Alex told me to go for it.
"I spoke to Alex on the football side and I asked Peter what he thought about the club off the pitch. He's a very shrewd football man, Peter.
"I remember Alex saying Palace had great potential. A great youth policy. They'd brought some good kids through on a regular basis. And their supporters are fantastic. In the Croydon area alone you've got 950,000 people. That's more than most cities.
"I took Dave Kemp and Gerry (Francis) with me and we had a look at the team, at the strengths and weaknesses, and decided on a certain style of play. There was pace in the team, and good ability out wide. But we also got the players working harder than they've probably worked before. It became very difficult to beat us. We were playing with pace and with great confidence.
"When I went in there I don't think anyone, from the chairman and directors to the players, was convinced we could stay up. We were rock bottom and you could see the doubt in people's minds. The players were very doubtful. There was that smell of, 'Let's enjoy playing in the Premier League but we're probably not good enough to stay here'.
"So the big thing was convincing everyone that if we gave everything we would have a chance. Everyone bought in to what we wanted to do. And the lads we did bring in did great for us. Even Wayne Hennessey. He didn't play but the threat he posed brought the best out of our goalkeeper Julian Speroni."
