Thursday night this week is sadly not reserved for the Europa League.
It is election night of course.
TEB is entirely unpolitical but I do have one piece of advice. Go to bed. Do not stay up all night.
If you do stay up, under no circumstances should play the ‘it is too close to call‘ drinking game. If you have to take a shot or down a pint every time you hear that phrase on Thursday, no stomach pump in the world will be able to save you.
The last general election was back in May 2010.
If you are reading this article the chances are that you are a Palace fan. And if you are a Palace fan, your memories of May 2010 may not be about the demise of Gordon Brown or the unexpected Cameron/Clegg coalition.
The pre-election issues in May 2010 for Palace fans were irrelevant. It was all about that final game at Hillsborough for the football survival, then Gresham Street for the club survival.
I was not at Hillsborough. I wish I was, but I do remember where I was. At a birthday lunch for one of my in-laws at a pub with a heroically crappy 3G connection.
I was at Gresham Street though. Gresham Street is in the City of London. Home to my then employers, and also to Lloyds Banking Group, who were the accidental owners of Selhurst Park, as a result of a collapsed property business. In turn, that meant Lloyds had a say in the future of Crystal Palace.
The then little known group of businessmen, a coalition of sorts, who had proposed to save the club, wanted to buy back the freehold to Selhurst Park. The belief, very strongly held back in May 2010, was that Lloyds were a stumbling block to the survival of the club.
As we all know now, the Browett, Hosking, Long & Parish coalition saved the day back then.
And five years on, I would like to doff my hat to them for pretty much everything they have done.
No-one in their right minds saw mid-table Premier League safety at the end of their five year plan (a phrase that might catch on I reckon).
Neither would it seem likely that four businessmen from entirely different fields would be able to group together to run the club successfully.
The Palace ownership model is almost unique. Traditionally you have a single owner, perhaps a charismatic front man, perhaps a silent, mysterious money man. Well we have both types and they seem to get on.
It is the ‘getting on‘ that is remarkable. Even for mature, intelligent grown men with a shared commitment on doing their best for Palace, they surely cannot have agreed on everything.
Arguments about football tend to get rather emotional, even if you support the same team.
Let us imagine we are back to 2012/13 and pick four random Palace fans in the Two Brewers after a home game. We will wait for the first couple of pints of Spitfire to sink in, and then ask about who should be left back.
There are two Moxey fans and two Johnny Parr fans. And I have the next couple of rounds of Spitfire already lined up.
That debate could have broken long-term friendships, even if it in retrospect it should not have done.
(The debate was in fact won by the drunken old boy in the corner who insisted we just shove a right back over there and hope for the best).
If we as fans can go nuts about who plays left back after a few pints, then four guys who have invested seven figure sums are entitled to argue over pretty much anything.
They must have argued, or at the very least, disagreed – it is human nature. But any arguments have been kept in private, as far as I am aware, and rumours over who will or will not have influence in the event of an American takeover do not seem to have knocked the club off course.
While Steve Parish is clearly the front man, and may have proposed crucial decisions, such as the sackings of Holloway and Warnock, the other three have invested huge sums in the club and must have been part of the decision.
The achievements on the pitch since May 2010 have been remarkable. However long the current ownership structure lasts in the future, the stability, enthusiasm and commitment they have provided since those dark days has been remarkable.
Clearly, they were the finest coalition formed in May 2010.
