This is exciting! Even more since Macclesfield. Sure, the cup is gone, and the glow went with it. But, very soon, we will know key answers to key questions we are all now asking.
Will Oliver Glasner stay? Will Marc Guehi go? For just one window, will the Board provide a decent budget to buy the players needed? When we have the answers, we will all discover who our owners really are.
Dropping the masks of the men who own CPFC
Currently, we know their names. And the public version of their back story. We know that, between them, they invested many, many millions to own a sports teams, and then won zip, zero, nothing. Until their first, the only one so far – Crystal Palace brought the FA Cup to Selhurst Park. Not just any old silverware, but the oldest knockout trophy in the world.
We’re now losing games – and these men knew last summer
We now lose games because the job our team faced wasn’t humanly possible. Last summer, for example, Ismailia Sarr was already a key player in Glasnerball and AFCON was certain to take him away for weeks, yet still the owners left Glasner to watch as, for example, poor Justin Devenny struggled to play way out of position.
The Board knew this was coming, but still left the Head Coach exposed while banking a transfer profit. Today, we all know the owners know they’ve asked way too much of the players. What will the owners do now?
Pressure is increasing. As if the owners needed a prod, 2026 came in like a stinky Uncle. And then there was Macclesfield. Our players didn’t perform like they were cup holders, but maybe that’s because most of them weren’t. Our team on Saturday had only two starters from the final at Wembley.
What’s hurting team selection?
The frequency of matches. The fabulous 19-match unbeaten run was spread across 168 days, and team changes were rare. The next 19 games were crammed into just 83 days – the injury list grew, multiple changes were forced and 8 matches were lost.
Fixture compression has cruelly exposed the obvious weaknesses in our squad. Manful effort and dedication from these players are repeatedly impressive, but here’s what Glasner cares about. Results are not what they were. Very much not. And he’s hurt.
Watch his face during defeats. He openly looks like he’s pining for a training week where he can work with his players on solutions to what’s going wrong – good news Ollie, that week is finally here!
This window, quality reinforcements are desperately required, and the owners will perhaps realise that investing in the squad now shows nothing more than due respect for the achievements already of this coach and his players – and the crowded fixture schedule their success has earned.
Do the spending rules prevent the club from investing?
Steve tells us they do. The facts say we are selling big-fee players without spending it all – so why would spending rules affect us so badly, they strangle our transfer spend? Especially when we watch other clubs spend fortunes we can only dream about. Obviously, with the stand to be built, there’s no sense in stretching too far. And Parish is naturally worried about investing in players for Glasner, only for Glasner to leave this summer. But, PLEASE, let’s see some proper backing for our brilliant coach!
Does the club have the cash?
It looks like this might be problem. For instance, one way of viewing the Christantus Uche loan-to-buy “play now, pay later” deal in September is that it made Palace look really, really short of cash. But didn’t Steve bring in billionaire owners so the odd few million wouldn’t be a problem?
Do the owners have the cash?
Yes, these men are definitely not short of a bob or two. But will they cough up? In the Spurs programme, Steve spoke about Palace’s four main shareholders, who happen to be 3 billionaires and himself, a millionaire.
Steve asked:
“How much money do you think they should spend every year without any prospect of seeing it again? I put £5million into the club last year. How much money should I put in every year without a prospect of seeing it again?”
Thanks for your generosity, Steve. It might be a legitimate question, except…. are you really claiming (not once, but twice) that value of the shares you own can never rise, and you can never sell them? Is that really true? What exactly makes your shares different from the CPFC shares that John Textor bought in 2021 and sold for a fat profit last year? Or maybe the Palace programme misquoted you?
As Palace fans now hope for the billionaires to open their cheque books in the next few days, it’s worth recalling that Palace’s transfer budget has been starved of cash the last 4 years. Almost every window since summer 2021, the owners have locked away the cheque book for as long as they dared, often reducing transfer strategy to a last-minute crazy scramble.
Has the new Main Stand prevented spending?
Work starts in January and, for construction projects of this size, work doesn’t normally start until the money is ALL in place. So CPFC have been saving up and making down payments to get us this far, and now a £125million loan has been taken from Goldman Sachs.
Before anyone lends a 9-figure sum to anyone, they require major guarantees and security too. So we assume the presence of the billionaire owners helped with the guarantees and maybe a cut in the interest rate the club will be paying on this loan for decades to come.
We also hope the loan is secured on the building itself, not the playing squad. Mortgaging players when the owners have the cash seems a little odd.
Does the Goldman Sachs loan mean that from now on the stand won’t be sucking the life out of our playing squad?
Hope so! Saving up for the stand would explain why, window after window, Palace have been outspent by so much by so many teams above and below us. Look at net transfer spending since the summer 2022 window opened.
By the way, as construction commences, Steve thinks fans will be happy to see holes in the ground. I think we’d much prefer regular updates with drone photography, thanks, Steve.
Dropping behind in Net Transfer Spending 2022-2025
Chelsea £743m
Man U £702m
Arsenal £652m
Tottenham £612m
Liverpool £487m
Newcastle £471m
Man City £326m
West Ham £307m
Bournemouth £161m
Fulham £133m
Palace £102m
Villa £91m
Brentford £78m
Wolves £62m
Everton £27m
Brighton £-17m
Palace already gave up two of the world’s 60 best players (as voted for by The Guardian). Michael Olise and Ebere Eze in our red and blue are just fun memories now, and we’ll soon lose Guehi, now recognised as one of the best centre backs in world football. Few teams could survive such losses and expect to keep winning.
Assuming Palace now wish to climb the Premier League table, can we afford to repeat history where teams around us, the ones we most need to beat to climb the table, have invested far more in buying better players than Palace?
More players to sell?
With Brennan Johnson safely in the door, Clickbait now reports that, in this January window, Palace need to sell before they can buy. But can you keep selling your best players and stay competitive? Ask Wolves. And, don’t forget, Palace’s new Sporting Director came from Wolves. So he knows both sides of the coin – how to make profits from trading players in and out, as well as the results of having your team decimated by big name departures.
And that’s why Palace must now move heaven and earth to get Glasner’s signature. Star players were sold, yet Glasner the magician somehow conjured up results that were better than ever while continuing to deal decisively with players he considers not good enough to be part of his squad. Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, Matheus Franca, Romain Esse, and Naouirou Ahamada are all out of Glasner’s picture for what’s left of his current contract, so now … who’s he making room for?
Well, that’s another thing Palace fans will learn over the next few weeks. Will it be experienced stars or players with potential for long-term improvement – or maybe one or more of the Under-21s have tickled Glasner’s imagination?
Hmm, that might be an interesting and unusual legacy for us to remember Glasner by. When we’re watching George King or Ben Casey or Joel Drakes-Thomas winning games for Palace ten years from now, and we think back to that first run of games in the first team. And the opportunity created by Glasner. Now, that would be a valuable parting gift.
The owners expect fast payback – and that’s good news!
While we take a moment to fantasise about the future, the Palace board expects payback from the stand to start as soon as humanly possible. And, to get the revenue they want, the owners will urgently desire two positives – a highly successful team and as many match days as possible.
Their financial dream (as soon as possible) is to see the completed new stand packed with happy laughing Palace fans cheering on a team pushing for the very top. At the centre of the board’s happy future picture will be – hopefully – our beaming Head Coach Oliver Glasner. No guarantees of course.
How can Macclesfield mark a new beginning?
Moments like Macclesfield, we see masks drop. Now Palace and the fans can enjoy some “back to normal” – to be Crystal Palace, we don’t have to be favourite to win every game, we don’t have to dominate possession. We can all go back to being who we really are, the real Crystal Palace. And that should very much include Oliver Glasner. If you think Macclesfield will stay with you forever – at least it doesn’t sit as a huge permanent stain on your CV. It does for Glasner.
Fans expect investment now
With the money hose for the stand possibly slowed down, Glasner and supporters will naturally expect an early return to competitive transfer spending norms. Like summer 2021 when Guehi, Olise, Joachim Andersen and Will Hughes all arrived. That’s the type of strengthening this squad now needs. You did it before, now we’re expecting you to do it again! It’s only logical. So… let’s hope that kind of activity begins again, starting in this January window!
The first 30 games of 2026: Scenario A
As the owners’ ambitions for CPFC become clear, these 30 games will be a period when Glasner will undoubtedly do his very best to win more matches – but he might be working his notice, so a replacement will need to be named and will start work.
The first 30 games of 2026: Scenario B
We’d all much prefer the alternative. That would mean enjoying the next 30 games with maximum excitement and full throttle anticipation, certain that the Head Coach under long-term contract is Glasner, and Crystal Palace are back to building, building, building something unique in all of our lives.
So the message for Steve Parish is quite straightforward
Palace supporters admire the job you’ve done, the risks you take, the dedication you’ve shown and the success you’ve achieved. Your legacy is safe. You’re the man who first saved CPFC so we could become a Premier League club, then proved for the first time that we can lift a big trophy.
Even after Macclesfield, we now have the most fantastic situation, one that we may never see again: the right coach has met the right players at the right club at the right time. But we do feel it slipping away, so action is needed now!
Steve, here’s your chance to push for hero status. Kind of like Wilf, but not …. if you understand what I mean.
For the owners too
Just in case there is even the most tiny doubt what we all want and expect from our board, right now……
Give Glasner the contracts he wants for him and his staff. Give Glasner the transfer budgets he needs and deserves. You’ve never once done that. And give us all peace and pleasure anticipating what comes next for Palace.
This is for the sake of all the Palace fans, including the tens of thousands of fans in the last 100 years who stood at Selhurst just like us, week in, week out and hoped (only hoped) for what we now know is possible, because we’ve seen it with our own eyes. A super team with a super coach, winning matches, accumulating points and showing the world that Palace has a football team that everyone would love to support. Everyone of course except those poor souls who think Brighton are best.
Wishing every Palace fan everywhere and everyone employed by the club a Happy ‘Glasnerful’ New Year!
