I, like many of you Palace fans out there, cannot wait for the new football season to start.
Over the Summer I find the weeks empty without my football fix. Whilst the Ashes, F1 and Tour de France bring some sporting entertainment into an otherwise dreary working week, nothing beats the feeling during the football season of getting to Saturday and knowing Palace will be playing.
Unfortunately, I have been missing out on this feeling for some time now, but the new Premier League season is nearly upon us, and I find myself thinking about what I would like to see from our boys in red and blue.
Our fantastic showing in the second half of last season has left us all anticipating and expecting big things. Is it really worth getting our hopes up? I mean, come on now, this is Crystal Palace after all. Can we really expect to better the last two seasons where we have outperformed, outplayed and out-gunned many big names in the footballing world such as Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton?
Whilst you could never call me the most optimistic Palace fan (and I touch wood as I write this), I think we can. We can continue to surprise this year. If Alan Pardew plays his cards right, Palace certainly have potential to cause massive unrest in the top half of the table, maybe even ruffle a few feathers in and among the big six teams perhaps.
I must not allow myself to get too excited, but how is that possible? We have just snapped up Yohan Cabaye, a world class midfielder, an experienced international, and not for some tiny country nobody has ever heard of, but for France, a major player in international football.
I find myself asking, why would such a talented player, who could fit in the starting eleven of any Premier League team, want to join Palace? I think he can see ambition. He knows this is not a stagnant team. We are going places and fast.
There is just one problem with all of this excitement. It is one that I have mentioned before, and that all Palace fans will understand, and it is this. We are Crystal Palace Football Club. In the back of my mind, I have a nagging feeling that something, somewhere during the campaign, will happen and our season will be as bumpy and gut-wrenching as the last two.
Any Palace fan will know that we rarely have a clean run at any point during a season. There is normally one or two major obstacles that will prevent us from achieving the extraordinary. I cannot help but feel there may be something on the horizon to cause upheaval at our wonderful club once again.
Let us hope that the Palace of old, the Palace that I have grown up with, the Palace where nothing ever seems to go our way, really is in the past, and that we are heading for pastures new. Let us all hope that we really can be optimistic about this season, and see our club rise to heights many of us could have only dreamed of not long ago.
So, what do I realistically think we can achieve this season?
Well, let us get the first, and quite possibly the most important base covered. I believe that we will comfortably stay up. You would not be a Palace fan if you did not, first and foremost, hope they avoid relegation. It sits on my mind right up until the moment it is mathematically impossible for us to go down. So first base covered, we will get to forty points by February quite comfortably with the team we have.
I cannot help but think there may be more to this season than just ‘avoiding relegation’ which is what the goal has been for the last two years. Pardew may try and install more ambition into the squad. If he is successful in doing that, I really do feel we can once again make a top ten finish.
That is as high as I am willing to go though, I really do not want to dig a hole and start suggesting we can finish in the top eight this season, like many media outlets are currently doing. Most teams have figured us out by now, what with our pace on the wings, solid central midfield and defence. They will deliberately make themselves hard to break down, they know that is our weakness.
In terms of playing staff, it is difficult to predict. My personal opinion is that for goalkeeping options, Julian Speroni should no longer be our first choice. It really pains me to say it as he is my favourite ever player, having watched him from when he signed up until now.
The progress he has made, and the loyalty he has shown has been nothing short of incredible, and in our first season back in the Premier league, you could argue he was one of the top five keepers in the league. However, he is starting to show his age, and it is time we give someone else a chance. Seeing how good some of McCarthy’s performances have been in pre-season, it would be good to see if he can cut it.
As sad as it is for me to say this, I do not think Damien Delaney makes the cut in defence anymore. There is no denying his passion, and the fact that he consistently gives his all for the team. He is a bit slow, and a bit reckless, which are two qualities which we just cannot have in a central defender. I think he really has been fantastic, a model professional who really did prove his worth to us, and to himself. After all, before we signed him he was contemplating retiring from football altogether.
The rest of our defence is pretty sound. Pape Souare has been looking better and better every time I see him play, and, in my opinion, could be the answer to our long awaited prayers for a left back. With Joel Ward and Martin Kelly fighting over right back it would seem that we have a healthy and strong defensive back line to choose from. If we can sign a decent centre back in the coming weeks our defence will certainly be rock solid.
In midfield, the current ‘McJedley‘ partnership is likely to continue although I really only see Mile Jedinak and James McArthur playing major roles. Jason Puncheon or Cabaye sitting in the middle while Yannick Bolasie and Wilf Zaha take their positions out wide.
Up front, there is still plenty more to come from Dwight Gayle while Glenn Murray can still hit the target when required. The arrival of Patrick Bamford is a shrewd acquisition as he has been consistently brilliant in the Championship. It will be great to see him progress in the Premier League.
A truly prolific striker is what is needed though, with Connor Wickham seemingly on his way, I am a little concerned that he adds little to what we already have although I very much hope to be proven wrong. Should we sign a Remy or Austin type player, this could be the strongest Palace team ever.
Despite all of this, I am still going to be counting the points, because whilst we are still Crystal Palace, and whilst we are still in the Premier League, forty will always be the magic number. Anything above that really is a blessing.
You never know though. Now is the time for us Palace fans to look to the sky. Great things are happening in South London right now and I am sure there is more to come.
