Dowie: I'll stay if we go down

Last updated : 08 February 2005 By Nik Taylor

Iain Dowie has no plans to desert Palace should he fail in his aim of keeping the side in the Premiership.

Palace fans have had to put up with Dowie being linked to every half-decent job in the league ever since he guided the Eagles to the play-offs last season.

And with the team now only two points clear of the bottom-three, speculation had been growing that he would be tempted to another club should the worst happen.

But Dowie is no Bruce, and he’s set Palace minds at rest with an assurance that he has no intention of going anywhere.

"I don't see my future outside Crystal Palace for the foreseeable future," the boss told the BBC.

"I have signed a four-year deal and I have three more to go. For me, it doesn't affect my future if we go down. If we take them down my main goal straight off is to take them back up."

Dowie also played down rumours of a rift between himself and chairman Simon Jordan.

"We are very strong characters who are not always going to agree, but we need to have learned lessons from what we have done wrong this year," he said.

"Simon has invested heavily and he wants the best for the club, and my point is I very much want to be involved in the process which takes the club forward.

"I think we have understood that in our discussions last week and there is no rift.

"We can't afford to have any divisions in the club when we have to be all together and pushing for Premiership survival."