Our new weekly feature will be brought to you by our two new writers – avid Palace fans Stu Ions and Donogh Hurley. Both will take it in turns to bring us their own views on Palace or football in general. Feel free to comment on their articles here on the site or interact with them on Twitter.
This week we have Donogh Hurley who shares his views on the pre-season.
As the Premier League campaign finally gets underway and the sides are back in their usual environs, we can look back at a summer which beautifully captured the spirit of the game and it’s global appeal.
No, I am not talking about the greatest World Cup in my living memory, or the splendid spectacle of football we were exposed to throughout. I am talking about the whistle stop tours of far flung corners our great ‘Barclays Premier League sponsored by *insert local commercial partner here*‘ sides endured.
The frenzied drive and frantic scramble for commercial success outside of sides comfort zones has resembled a marauding empire, grabbing land and converting locals to the ideals of the throne. In this case the infallible football entity that is the Premier League.
West Ham took it upon themselves to show the rugby devoted New Zealanders just what they were missing out on by parading a crippled Andy Carroll and proceeding to lose their two games to the mighty Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC.
Palace are no different. After a training camp in Austria, a jaunt on the east coast of the US saw headlines of ‘Palace complete US tour unbeaten‘ following forays with MLS minnows like Columbus Crew and Philadelphia Union, finishing with a trouncing of formidable sounding opponents Richmond Kickers.
Now, I apologise for sounding like a grump, but what is the point of these meaningless treks? The Harlem Globetrotters we are not. Neither are most of the other sides following a similar pattern. When the ‘new English football messiah’ Louis van Gaal (or LVG as Sky Sports news et al will no doubt reduce him to) is moaning about schedules and clocking up thousands of non redeemable air miles, surely these tours prove more of a hindrance?
It is hard to imagine how a club of Palace’s or West Ham’s stature can truly benefit from it all. For starters, has it affected Tony Pulis’ ability to bring in key transfer targets? The summer saw Palace miss out on Sigurdsson and Caulker, likely to much bigger wage packets on offer elsewhere, but it could be argued that in some cases having a manager as compelling and engaging as Pulis to progress talks with a player over the final hurdle could be the difference in getting your first choice targets over your Plan B.
There is no doubt Ian Moody is a competent negotiator, as was displayed by his successful recruits in January, but is he the best man to translate football ideals to a prospective new signing? I am not convinced.
And what about the signings that have been secured? Frazier Campbell signed on the dotted line, to find that his manager and fellow first team players were across the water, playing in front of paltry crowds and against sub-standard players. Campbell has had little time to forge an early bond and understanding with his potential partners up front. A relatively small concern, but a concern nonetheless.
Palace’s first real test of the pre-season came following their triumphant homecoming – a battling 3-2 defeat to a good Brentford side that probably taught Tony Pulis much more about what he needs for the coming season than any of the previous four games combined. Stephen Dobbie was the star of the show against GAK Graz, grabbing four, and he has subsequently departed to join Fleetwood Mac ahead of their rumoured Glastonbury appearance next year. Good experience, no doubt.
Sure there are positives to take, not least giving foreign fans like Jason Matthews the opportunity to see the side he has followed for fourteen years for the first time. And there is no doubt the trip to Austria was driven purely on the grounds of being an opportunity for some intense pre-season workouts for the squad to regain fitness. Austria, you would think, was a Pulis idea. Hard to imagine the US tour was.
Most of us would have seen the image of 110,000 people who turned up to see Manchester United defeat Real Madrid, demonstrating the true global pull of these two horribly commercial and assembled sides. Is that really what a club like Palace one day envisage by treks across the globe – to become part of blatant exploitative ‘tournaments‘ that give the impression of a competitive context so people will fork out their cash? When does it stop? Where does it stop?
Manchester City trekked to the UAE days after winning the league last season, fielding a team full of knackered players to an audience of wealthy benefactors. It almost resembles medieval cruelty, parading a bunch of invalid slaves and peasants for the entertainment of the masses. You could almost hear the uncontrollable, cruel laughter from here. It is madness.
Thankfully, the madness has come to an end for this summer, and normal service has been resumed. I am looking forward to freezing my proverbials off in the dead of winter again, and ignoring the incessant ‘best league in the world’ tripe that flows from Sky and friends.
The best league in the world, regardless of your team, is the league your side is in, and no summer invasions of foreign lands will impact that. It was Asia a few years ago, the US is all the rage now. Expect African lands to fall foul of the European football summer disease in the next couple of years. Give me a friendly with Dulwich and Hamlet any day.
