It has been quite a week in the sporting world.
Paul Pogba finally completed his big move to Manchester United and then on top of that and more importantly in my eyes, the Olympics begun in what has been a superb Games so far.
As I write, Team GB have just had another superb day claiming gold in the men’s sprint by setting a new Olympic record (and if you know about my passion for cycling, Thursday night was quite some performance from the cycling team, so I am excited about what else they could achieve). Rower Heather Grainger also added a silver medal to her already wonderful collection, so Olympic fever is well and truly in full swing and with Team GB building up a head of steam, it is a superb time for British sport.
However, we all know another sport kicks off this weekend as the Premier League returns in all its glory with the opening weekend of matches taking place.
It will be great to see Palace in competitive action once again and there is a potentially tricky banana skin in the shape of West Bromwich Albion and a man we know so well. Is it worth mentioning his name?
Let us forget about the Baggies and concentrate on Palace. It has also been quite a week at Selhurst with the never ending rumours about Christian Beneteke resurfacing with the club reportedly in talks with Liverpool. On top of that it looks very much like the club has agreed a £30million deal with Everton for Yannick Bolasie.
We talk about our exciting wingers a lot on TEB, and forgive me but I want to have my say on that potential departure.
It was Dougie Freedman that signed Bolasie from Bristol City for what was peanuts in today’s crazy market. Since then he has evolved into a top player, and if you ask me, with the right club he could go on to do rather well in his career. However, is Everton really the right place to continue his development?
They now have a top manager in the shape of Ronald Koeman, and with the new investors they are throwing the cash about. The signing of Ashley Williams was a real coup but I believe it might be a step sideways for the DR Congo international.
It is inevitable Bolasie will leave at some point but I do believe he is better than Everton. If you ask me now what clubs do you think Palace currently rank up against, I would say we are in that group with Stoke City, Everton, Southampton, and possibly West Ham United if we bring in the required targets. So to me, Bolasie leaving for Merseyside does not make any sense.
The money is great. Thirty million for a player that can do the sublime one week and then the ridiculous the next is very good indeed, but I feel he has got to look at our squad, look at who we are potentially trying to bring and then make his mind up.
With the right player, and I must stress at the RIGHT price, we could do a lot better in the league than we showed in the second half of last season. It is a developing story that we will keep an eye on, but it looks as though Bolasie should feature against the Baggies this weekend.
Time to move on to the game on Saturday and what we want to see from the team. I am sure we are all hoping for the right result with some good attacking play and a solid defensive display, but that is the beauty of football, you just never know what is going to happen.
We certainly have not got a lot of options upfront, in fact Connor Wickham is our only fit forward, but behind him we should see the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Bolasie, and Andros Townsend in support. That is not to forget Jason Puncheon. Where does he fit in now?
Should Bolasie stay, I am extremely interested to see how that will work. Townsend is a top player who will certainly add that bit of quality at the top end of the pitch, that same quality we lacked at times last season.
Further back Scott Dann, our newly installed captain will once again marshal the back line, but whether he will be partnered by James Tomkins or Damien Delaney is another big question. For me, Delaney deserves his starting place. He has been a tremendous servant of this club, and I think my TEB colleague Lucy White will agree that Delaney has proved his worth in the Premier League time and time again.
Finally, the goalkeeping situation will be another interesting debate. We have three solid keepers on the books now in the shape of Julian Speroni, Wayne Hennessey and Steve Mandanda. Who Alan Pardew will opt to be his number one will be interesting.
Regardless of our striking situation, I still feel we have enough about us to get off to a good start, so you know what to do…
Be Loud. Be Proud. Be Palace!
