Welcome back to another edition of Fan Chat, which this week features me not moaning all the time for once. Hooray!
Actually, there’s a little one right at the end, so if that’s what you’re looking for skip to the final three paragraphs!
The reason for my lack of moaning is because after many years of frustration, we have an Eagle in the England squad. Not the one I called for, but one that still deserves it just as much. Andros Townsend has featured for the Three Lions before and his terrific performances in red and blue have earned him that all important call up, with a little help from the injured Raheem Sterling.
Andros is someone that clearly cares about his football, you can see that in the passion and desire he has when playing. Whether it is for us, England, or his previous clubs, he is a man that fits the Palace philosophy like a glove. And like gloves, he goes hand in hand with our very own playing philosophy of hitting the opposition on the counter, with fast breaks and exciting trickery. Despite the significant loss of Yannick Bolasie, I genuinely believe we have a better replacement, certainly one that knows how to find the net!
He embodies the Palace spirit, something that Julian Speroni talked about last week in detail in a fantastic open interview with the club. It was a great piece which I encourage you to check out if you haven’t already, with Speroni (naturally a firm favourite with all writers at TEB and fans alike) suggesting that he feels like a fan, and that he ensures every new player signed, is briefed on what is expected of them at Palace.
It’s not just about winning, he feels it’s about playing the game the right way, and it’s what makes it so exciting to be part of the Palace family for us fans, and most of us know to expect the unexpected. Our current excellent run of form, topped off with a fantastic second half performance against Everton, puts us in a great place for when we return after the international break.
We still seem to be suffering from this issue where we put in a lacklustre first half, and then an incredible second half. It’s literally a tale of two halves in every game. Some consistency would be very welcome as it’s very risky to continue playing how we are, however, unlike at the start of the season, I have a little bit more confidence that Alan Pardew can sort this out in due course.
I’m very much looking forward to the return of Loic Remy. It was so disappointing to see him get injured so soon into his Palace career, especially as he brings such a threat to our front line. With him providing pace, Townsend and Wilfried Zaha providing width, and ‘Big Ben’ giving us a presence, we have a formidable attacking line up. What’s worrying is our defending, which has been a bit lackadaisical recently. We’ve conceded in nearly every game, and despite our best efforts, have also given away some very sloppy chances and goals.
Moving away from Palace, and what an intriguing few weeks it has been in the world of English football. Big Sam really has made a hash of his chance to be the England Manager, all due to undercover stings by a national newspaper. It’s been made clear that numerous big names in football have been caught up, and as the events unfold, it will be interesting to see the outcome.
However, it is troubling that money is such a big problem in football today, what with the FIFA corruption scandal, Joey Barton betting on fixtures he’s involved in, and the England manager telling people how to get round third party ownership rules. It seems that, as many have said, money has ruined the game. It’s made players expensive commodities, not people, and now seemingly it is impossible to succeed without significant financial backing. I can’t even say that Palace aren’t guilty of this as we’re one of the league’s top spenders this year.
I refer back to my piece four weeks ago, which received a lot of stick at the time, but I do miss the days in the Championship when we paid a few hundred thousand pounds for a player, and not thirty million, no matter what the quality. With players like Paul Pogba going for nearly £100 million, it does make you question when the madness will end.
Even in the Championship now, teams are playing tens of millions for players, and the issue we face with this kind of spending is that it draws great overseas talent into the country, but leaves our development of young British talent languishing. Notice how our national team has performed increasingly poorly as overseas investment in English football increases. The correlation is there, my question is, when is something going to be done about it?
My fear is that the traditional English game is dying and our identity is being lost as the money pours in, and some clubs are getting left behind. More worryingly, the financial risks clubs are increasingly choosing to take now to remain competitive with the big teams means that there is more chance that clubs will enter administration.
We know just how that feels, and we’d hate to see it happen to anyone, even Brighton!
