14/4/2024 could well have been a defining moment for Crystal Palace FC. Under the steady if unflattering stewardship of Steve Parish Crystal Place are now an established Premiership club. I believe only the usual top 6 and Everton have berthed in the top flight longer.
It may go down as over a decade of bodged governance bailed out by Wilf Zaha, but the facts are facts we are an established if wavering force, occasionally to be reckoned with! It has not been easy and full credit to Parish who has had a knack of calling the right shots at crucial times. Full credit to him for fessing up to getting rid of Murray as a huge mistake on his behalf, which still irks me. I digress.
The governance agenda has been a bit like our old 80s kick and rush… launch and hope for the best. Try some nice football and if it does not work bring in the tried and tested dinosaurs to bail us out of any relegation mire. Sam At A Price, Pulis, Roy etc, and with Roy, building a club around a lack of ambition. Which worked. A great servant he has been mind you, and someone I very much admire.
But except for a season under Patrick Vieira, aided by the inspirational loan signing Conor Gallagher, that launched his career, it has been gruel interspersed with shots of hope.
Oliver Glasner, I can stick in all the fill and tell Palace fans reading this everything they know already, like Vieira is a more progressive manager. But of a higher pedigree. Okay not fair, higher and a more successful pedigree.
After over a decade we now have a glimmer of something really positive. He knows his stuff and what’s more seems to be a brilliant fit. The feeling was always good when, after an initial start of poor results, the usually fickle Place fans had not turned on him and Parish. A managerial flounce , not bounce, on paper was negated by clear progress and a positive shift in direction that everyone recognised.
A period of the lifting of the doldrums at Selhurst has begun, as someone has finally come in and literally blown the bloody doors off, after years of a misguided culture of accepting mediocrity. As if being Palace is a hindrance and we don’t deserve better, a thinking running through and holding back the club all my life.
The 14th April 2024 may be a defining moment for Crystal Palace FC. Playing away at one of the greatest and best clubs in world football we looked a new team. In one match we manoeuvred up a gear from also rans to competing at the top table. We looked a team that can beat anyone.
So that is why after just one good game I think next season we can get into Europe. Shaking off that normal Palace negativism, Oliver Glasner has come here to get Crystal Place into Europe. He won’t say it as he speaks in humble tones, but why else bother for someone of his ability. Palace forums are always awash with a mixture of negativity ,great debate and also trite. Nobody except the leadership at the Palace know what the plan is, but we have within that leadership the money and skills to mastermind real progress at the club.
People such as our owners have lots of money because they spend and invest money wisely, a fact lost on so many people and I believe they know full well the momentum, gravitas and money getting into Europe will bring to the club.
In practical terms three points here.
Chelsea and Manchester United are a total mess and with rumours of Southgate being lined up for Man U bottom half table football looms for them.
Brighton and Brentford will not be the dominant forces they have recently been.
We will not compete with the other big four, but there is no reason why in the mini league of ten suitors for positions 4-7 we cannot get a top three berth.
We simply have a number of outstanding players and with a proven manager and the indefatigable spirit of Palace anything can happen. I actually think the injuries to Olise this season may end up being a positive thing. I think he and his advisors know he needs a full season to ramp up his consistency and options moving forward. I think Parish would not have landed Glasner without promises of transfer and player stability. Palace are not a selling club anymore (within reason!)
Palace fans moan about the lack of depth of our squad but Glasner is already showing you can negate that by smart management, utilising players in fresh positions as he showed on Sunday. This will give us more room for squad rotation and opportunities for younger players to come through and shine. We can shed this current ridiculous culture of poor player resources planning and invest more wisely.
We have been doing brilliantly in the transfer market and badly, maybe the Glasner way will negate the need to buy dross and we can streamline our policy in the same way (through gritted teeth) like Brighton have, except unlike them hold onto players, rather than become the inevitable bust flush the Seaweed are hurtling towards.
Of course being Palace, the window of opportunity will be next season. Nothing good lasts forever at Selhurst Park, but I think so many things are aligning and 2024/5 maybe our greatest chance of getting into Europe.
Of course, many old timers berate the thought of European football as it is detrimental to league form.
Wrong. It is not.
Study: Playing in Europe does not hinder league form | UEFA Europa League | UEFA.com
I was standing on the Holmesdale when Lombardo and Padovano ripped a great Liverpool team to pieces before Padovano was injured. We looked like we could take on Europe that day and that will always remain to me the best 45 minutes of league football at Selhurst. It would be great to see some European nights in front of our new main stand. With the Seaweed bubble burst as they head off to the Championship, of course!
The Rights of Fans. 