Pod 6 | Dean Austin ... The Survivor

Sep 06, 2018, 03:57 PM

We spoke to Dean Austin back in April 2017 at La Sala restaurant in Chigwell, which became a 10 minute Cult Heroes feature for Palace TV.

This week's Official Palace Pod features the full hour of audio from that chat last year, where Dean opens up about his time with the Eagles, in what was a difficult period for the club. He felt that Palace fans never saw the best of him, because injuries had taken their toll on him by that stage, but he remained a big character in the dressing room and one of the key leaders as oblivion stared us in the face.

He returned to SE25 following another tough time in the club's history, as a first team coach and under-21s manager in 2010. During his brief stint back he oversaw the development of several notable names, including Wilfried Zaha, who remains the best player he has ever coached to this day. Deano speaks glowingly of working with a young Wilf, who he considered an "uncoachable" talent, who should be left to express himself on the pitch. At the time of recording he also made a prediction regarding the next stage of the Ivorian forward's game which has proven to be impressively accurate looking back.