Arsene Wenger reveals his surprise at 'miracle-worker' Tony Pulis leaving Crystal Palace

ARSENE WENGER expressed his complete surprise at "miracle-worker" Tony Pulis leaving the club after shaking hands with him on Monday and saying, "See you Saturday".

10:29, Fri, Aug 15, 2014

Arsene Wenger is surprised at Tony Pulis' Crystal Palace exit[PA]

Pulis left Crystal Palace just 36 hours before he was due to start the season with a trip to the Emirates and last season's manager of the year had given no indication he was about to leave when he bumped into Wenger at the Premier League manager's meeting on Monday.

"It was a complete surprise to me and what kind of consequence that will have on Crystal Palace, I don't know," Wenger said. "The only thing I can say is that he's done a remarkable job last season and he made a miracle. I don't really know why he left but it took me by surprise.

"I have never seen the manager of the year leave like that, so you can always be surprised. I was at a manager's meeting on Monday with Tony Pulis and nothing indicated that he would not be here tomorrow afternoon."

Pulis is understood to have left his job after a disagreement over the club's transfer policy and Wenger weighed into the argument by insisting the manager should be in charge of signings.

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"Normally we are responsible and our competence is to chose the players to build the team, so that is the responsibility of the manager," he said.

"Otherwise we become just robots and someone just pushes on the button, we just execute what they decide.

"I learnt very early in my career that it is important to have control of signings, because we are judged on our results.

"I am not against listening to others opinions, but in the end of the day in every democracy, somebody has to make a decision. Normally, it should be a guy who is responsible for the results."

In the meantime, Wenger insisted that the change of manager would not affect his own team's preparations.

"It's very difficult to know what kind of consequence it will have on Crystal Palace," Wenger said.

"The only thing we can do is prepare ourselves to face a tough opponent and I think the importance of the game - and the fact that it's the first game of the season – means Crystal Palace will be focused and motivated."