Twelve games in and we are seeing some real progress by the club both on and off the pitch.
Eighth in the Premier League on nineteen points gives us a real platform for the rest of the season as we head into the busy Christmas fixtures.
Yes, I used the ‘c’ word there and I apologise. However, it is relevant as the fixtures up to the end of the year means that we will have played every team once. On the form that we have showed, Palace could well be heading for a points total in excess of thirty as we enter another year.
The New Year will bring with it the January transfer window which will be a very interesting one for the South London club. While fans continue to suggest that the squad are short of a centre back and striker, the views of Alan Pardew and his staff may be completely different.
There is a lot to suggest that the players that we have in the current squad can only play in the formation that we currently favour. There could be an addition or two to the current playing staff that will permit some different options although that could be as simple as seeing the return of the some injured players, Marouane Chamakh in particular.
More interestingly, the last few days has seen the American money-man Josh Harris and his group who own both the New Jersey Devils NHL franchise as well as the Philadelphia 76ers NBA franchise, once again express more than a passing interest in the club after the summer dealings had cooled. This renewed interest suggests that the communications in the summer to the current owners were along the lines of ‘prove your intent and we will see’.
Perhaps it was as simple as the signing of Yohan Cabaye but if the impact of that marquee addition was as big in the eyes of the potential investors as it has been the Frenchman’s impact of the Palace team, then we could be seeing the bank balance of the club boosted even further.
Any potential deal would retain Steve Parish at the helm with the other three members of CPFC2010 taking a lesser stake in the club, while Josh Harris will have a stake that matches that of Parish.
Harris came through the Harvard Business School and worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert before co-founding private equity firm Apollo Global Management (AGM) with former Drexel colleagues Leon Black and Marc Rowan in 1990. Drexel was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, the fifth biggest in the USA, which was forced into bankruptcy in February 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities.
In 2011, the net worth of Harris was estimated at $1.5 billion and is currently one of three major partners of AGM along with Black and Rowan. He is part of two investment groups that took ownership of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011 and the majority stake in the New Jersey Devils in 2013 which includes fellow businessman David Blitzer, senior executive at private equity firm Blackstone Group.
Early indications are that the additional funding will be used for stadium regeneration (£80 million) and improvements to the youth academy (£20 million), both of which would be very welcome indeed.
The fear among Palace fans, or at least those long in the tooth Eagles supporters, is that the club will lose some identity and any deal to allow an overseas investor take a stake in the club starts that slippery slope. The fact remains that the four current owners have done a fantastic job since they took over and the club. It is in a very healthy position but there is a feeling that they can only take it so far.
With so much potential into what could be a very big future, or at least one that could be bigger than we have ever experienced as fans, the famous four are perhaps at a stage where they cannot take it to the next level. The important part in all this here is their continued involvement which removes the threat of a takeover.
Who knows what the future really holds for the club, this is football after all. With additional solid investment along with the involvement of those that have got us to this stage, it is hard to envisage anything other than a sensible and sound future is on the horizon.
Fans are right to be cautious. It is ‘their’ club as supporters, if not in financial ownership but you cannot deny that these are very exciting times to be involved with the Eagles.
