There is nothing wrong with having ambition writes Donogh Hurley and there is certainly nothing wrong with voicing goals and ambitions in a confident and optimistic manner, whatever the topic.
While the whole concept of competitive football on these shores is designed to harbour ambition, chairmen and managers alike have to be careful to balance realism when speaking in public about their vision.
Steve Parish this week voiced his belief that Palace could be a club cemented in the Europa League territory in this division. Perhaps modelling progression opportunities on the examples of Southampton and Swansea City’s relative success over the last couple of seasons.
Sure, a few European jaunts would be a much welcome addition to Palace’s schedule at some point in the future, but at what long term strain would that potentially inflict on a club of Palace’s relative diminutive stature? And is the Europa League even worth the effort of striving for?
The answer to that last question in footballing terms, is of course yes. Finishing as highly as possible in the league or trying to win cups is rule one in the ‘How To Be A Football Manager‘ handbook, and I have played enough Football Manager over the years to know exactly how club chairman operate.
Parish, however, has almost taken on the role of an excitedly naïve undergraduate, about to embark on a University career that he has carried little or no research out on. ‘Everton probably have about £10-11million more non-TV income than us, that’s it’, chimed our ever media reluctant great leader in the Evening Standard earlier this week and continued ‘It is not like the old days when their gate money was a significant differentiator in the ability to spend and compete‘. Ambition or no ambition, it is a dangerously naïve and frankly unrealistic comparison to be drawing.
By focusing on Everton, Steve Parish is almost turning a blind eye to some of the less glamorous Europa League alumni over the last five years. While you have your perennial Channel 5 mainstays in Everton and Tottenham Hotspur with their significant coffers in tow, they have been joined on the Europa League graduation grandstand by the likes of Fulham, Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Birmingham City.
Before that, the likes of Portsmouth were strutting their stuff with the big boys. The epitome of a lamb in sheep’s clothing. By focusing on Everton as a comparable model, he is ignoring the fact that they spent close to £30 million pounds on a striker over the summer. Importantly, he is ignoring the reality of his vision given the perils that have befallen many of the Europa League’s finest.
Striving for this high level mediocrity does not come cheaply, despite Parish’s assertion that ‘in television money, the Premier League is the most equitable league in the world‘. That might be true, but a glance at Fulham’s wage bill, the mess that Portsmouth and Birmingham City have found themselves in by daring to dream, the rampant stagnation at all corners of Villa Park and the fact that Wigan Athletic have fallen so far so quickly they have their future in the hands of a despicably racist and ignorant individual (take your pick) should act as enough of a warning to the perils of this vision.
We should not forget that Fulham started this Championship campaign with a strike force valued at £24 million pounds. Be careful what you wish for Steve.
Despite Palace staring at another big pot of gold at this season’s end, the club have still been modest in their outlay. One still has to suspect, despite Steve Parish’s claims to the contrary, that Pulis’ sudden departure was in some part due to this tight belt nature CPFC2010 adopted on promotion.
There is nothing wrong with that, but it diminishes the credibility of Parish’s claims that he sees Palace competing for Europa League positions if his cheque book tells a different story. His appointment of Neil Warnock in August should act as barometer of where priorities lie in terms of ambition and creative decision making.
So what will it take for Palace to feasibly become a top-half side?
Luck and a good transfer policy would be a start, but certainly do not be fooled into thinking that recent talk of a Josh Harris takeover is the answer. Sure, it would likely mean additional funds being made available for player acquisition, but if every Premier League club is quickly becoming a financially doped up sprinter, does that not merely level the playing field?
Two of the three teams who went down last season fell foul to foreign investment. Queens Park Rangers are an on-going tale of financial idiocy. Aston Villa’s owner has decided that being tricked into spending £20 million on Darren Bent was the last straw and is leaving them to rot like an unwanted toy at Christmas. What odds on Hull City having a highly publicised fall from grace in 2015, captured shaving its dignity off in a local barbershop a-la Britney Spears?
Call me a cynic, call me unambitious, but Palace fans more than a lot of fans of other clubs value sensible thinking. The club has come a long way since 2010, and while we all dream of days in the sun, it is just as easy to fly too close to it without getting as close as you might have hoped.
The burning reality of the wilderness clubs can face through blind ambition will leave much more of a scar than being beaten on away goals by Krasnodar.
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