Crystal malice

The flamboyant Palace chairman, with his perma-tan and sharp suit, was in the witness box for five hours during the case he had brought against Dowie on charges of fraud and misrepresentation from which he is seeking a £1million pay-out.

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Amid the engrossing details of their frosty personal relationship, Jordan defended a perceived lack of big-money spending at Selhurst Park.

He refused to pay the then- Millwall midfielder Tim Cahill's agents SFX a £125,000 fee, but insisted that Dowie had his own reservations about the player after hearing Cahill talk more about property than football.

He also claimed that Palace agreed a £3.5m fee with West Ham for Michael Carrick during the 2004-5 season but that the midfielder, who subsequently moved to Tottenham, refused to talk to the club.

A spiky, 90-minute longdistance phone conversation between Jordan — in his Spanish villa — and Dowie — sitting at home with his family in Bolton — following Palace's play-off semi-final defeat to Watford 12 months ago paved the way for the boss's departure.

That he ended up down the road at Charlton shortly afterwards when his professed reason for unhappiness at Palace was wanting to be with his family in the north-west is the basis of Jordan's case.

The chairman claims he would not have waived a £1m compensation clause had he known Dowie would move to The Valley.

The divergence of opinion between them during that phone call was absolute. Jordan proposed the possible sale of four players — Andrew Johnson, Ben Watson, Tom Soares and Fitz Hall.

Dowie disagreed.

Jordan suggested watching the video of the previous match together, "so that I could better understand his viewpoint and how he saw the game".

Dowie refused point-blank, according to Jordan. "Iain said, 'Under no circumstances am I going to watch matches with you, if you want to manage, do your coaching badges'."

Jordan also said he would be withdrawing the "discretionary gesture of goodwill" of paying for Dowie to fly up to see his family every Saturday evening because he felt it had gone unappreciated.

According to Jordan, Dowie then raised the subject of missing his family and asked that if a club in the north came in for him, the chairman would allow him to speak to that club.

Throughout five hours of cross examination — Jordan admitted that his way is not to use 10 words when 100 will do — Dowie studied every sentence of his testimony. His eyes followed question and answer intently.

To his right in Court Room 12 was Peter Varney, the Charlton Athletic chief executive. The Charlton chairman, Richard Murray, sat in the back row.

The irony of their presence on Dowie's behalf is that they are the men who sacked him as their manager six months after hiring him.

In spite of a dislike of Dowie, Jordan insisted that sacking him was the one option he was determined not to pursue.

He said: "I told Iain in the past that I didn't enjoy working with him but I do have great regard for his ability to coach and to lose him before this season — such a critical season — was a bloody disaster.

"After listening to 45 minutes of belligerence from him and a commentary of disrespect, I said, 'If you are that unhappy, why are you working for me?'

"Iain said, 'Are you asking me to resign? I'm not independently wealthy, Simon, I can't afford to resign'."