A time span of almost twenty years have passed since Palace made their last big impact signing.
In 1997, Italian international Attilio Lombardo signed for Crystal Palace from Juventus. He was the biggest name to sign for the club in my time supporting Palace. Perhaps the older fan may agree that he was the biggest signing in our history.
It has taken this long for very similar feelings emerge once again when the signing of Yohan Cabaye was confirmed.
Football has changed so much in that space of time let alone the world in which we live in. Everything is immediate and to hand nowadays. We know a lot more about a lot of footballers thanks in the most part to our gaming addiction and access to leagues around the world. That was not the case when we signed Lombardo. He was a footballing name which made it a huge signing.
I argue that the addition of Cabaye is as every bit exciting but it is perhaps diluted a little more than in 1997 because of our greater knowledge and access to information from across the world.
It would be wonderful to do a statistical analysis on both these players but when you type ‘Lombardo’ into the Who Scored search engine there are several results, just not the one I want. This upsets me.
Interestingly, the search brings up twelve players with the surname ‘Lombardo’. Six Americans, three Italians (none the one I want), one Canadian, one Frenchman and one from Switzerland. All of them impostors in my mind.
The ‘real’ Lombardo made 48 appearances across the 1997/98 and 1998/99 seasons scoring 10 goals. It felt like a lot more. It could have been a lot more had he not suffered an injury while on international duty.
He won a recall to the Italian national side due to his great form in South London and it says a lot about his influence on the team when you consider the club were 10th when he was first injured and bottom of the table by the time he returned.
Relegation followed and while there was a prolonged stay in South London, it was not a happy period and in a bizarre turn of events he found himself joint manager with Tomas Brolin.
It remains to be seen if Yohan Cabaye will have anything like the influence over the team that Lombardo did but the signs are very promising.
The search on Who Scored for Cabaye provides just one result, the one I was expecting.
Here are the Cabaye statistics from last season;
- Cabaye made 29 appearances for PSG last season
- Playing time equated to 1166 minutes of football (League, Cup and European)
- Two goals (one each in the cup and league)
- He made one international appearance for France
- Eight yellow cards and one sending off
- Average rating in league competition 6.66
The form of the Frenchman dipped from that he showed while at Newcastle United. He ended his time at St James’ Park with an average rating of 7.48 for the 2013/14 season until he left in the January transfer window. The remainder of the season was at PSG where his average rating dipped to 6.70.
His average ratings while at Newcastle are listed below along with the number of games played in brackets. It shows that his best form was in the Premier League and it is that which we hope he recaptures as he bids to make the French squad for the 2016 Euros in his home country.
- 2013/2014 7.48 (17)
- 2012/2013 7.20 (25)
- 2011/2012 7.26 (34)
The midfielder started his football career as a youth player at his local club Tourcoing. Of Vietnamese decent courtesy of his Grandmother, football is in the blood as his father is a former player and his brother currently plies his trade with a team in Belgium.
He moved to Lille in 1998 as a youth player and made his debut in the first team in 2004. He was part of the Coupe de France winning side of 2011, beating PSG 1-0 in the final which secured the double for Lille that season.
After his three seasons with Newcastle, his short spell with PSG was quite productive in terms of success winning the league title twice, league cup twice as well as the Coupe de France once again.
His three international goals to date have come against the Ukraine, Australia and Jamaica.
It is fair to say that he has more than the required attributes to be a Palace player, much like what was said of Lombardo when he first signed for the club. Cabaye is a player with excellent vision, great ball control and will provide the technical quality that the club need to progress further.
If you needed any more convincing of how exciting this signing is, make sure you read the opinion of Cabaye courtesy of Newcastle United fan Jake Jackman on TEB – Cabaye Will Light Up Selhurst.
The thought of Cabaye running the midfield for us is simply mouth watering and the opening game of the Premier League season cannot come soon enough.
