Football has long since been a game fuelled by narratives, rivalries between clubs, grudges to bear, tense history among certain players, managers, chairman and so on and so forth writes DONOGH HURLEY.
This list at times seems endless, not least in an age now where we know what players have for dinner, where they go on holiday, whose wives they are jumping into bed with or what club they are angling up a move to. The proliferation of mediums for footballers and pundits to air their less than revelatory thoughts has, for many, turned the modern game into one big soap opera with equal parts mundane and exciting story lines.
As far as Palace are concerned, well, there has never been that much glamour around Selhurst. While many believe Simon Jordan may have replaced the floodlights with intense UV bulbs to turn Selhurst Park into London’s largest tanning booth, Crystal Palace have never embodied an ethos or view that it was a club with a reputation to go with the lavish name.
This in part ties in with the convenient and frankly lazy narrative that the media seems to have adopted with regards to Palace. That the ‘plucky‘ South Londoners ‘rescued from oblivion‘ by Tony Pulis last year are ‘punching above their weight‘. The view that what Crystal Palace lack in quality, they make up for in the lion sized hearts that run through the squad.
How tired is everyone of this? Well, quite a few it would seem. Match of the Day (MOTD) announces weekly of their running order at around 7pm on a Saturday evening generates regular backlash from the Palace Twitterati. Furious that they are again lumped on either last or second last on a programme that will feature Manchester United and almost anybody near the top of their show because it fits the narrative. A struggling United facing a stern test against some also-rans, some mundane input from van Gaal afterwards and ten minutes harping on about not strengthening the defence. It is the same old stuff week in week out.
An example was following Palace’s win at Goodison Park a couple of weeks ago. The MOTD goons were quick to point out Palace only had three shots on target, completely neglecting to even acknowledge the guilt edged Guedioura chance at the death that could and should have given Palace their fourth goal of that game. Or against Leicester City last weekend, Palace’s second half performance was in my opinion their most impressive 45 minutes this season, and as well as completely controlling midfield, the all round play was splendid. A glance at the MOTD highlights would suggest Palace took their two goals, and were lucky not to have conceded in the first half, whilst crating little else.
Most Palace fans can appreciate each others frustration at this widely held perception of the club – a rabid underdog, who does not deserve to be there. ‘Oh, but aren’t they gutsy to stay there?’ It is condescending and insulting to everyone involved with the club, not least the players. It was a point that the ever diplomatic Julian Speroni was quick to highlight in an interview last week, where he voiced his tiredness at hearing of the ‘Messiah‘ that was Pulis, while the squad that got the results that kept us up seem to be an afterthought. This season’s narrative might have been different had Pulis not left suddenly in August, but now we are facing into a season of ‘struggle without the guidance of Tony Pulis‘. Tony who?
But while this lazy Palace profiling irritates me as much as the next guy, I am actually happy to embrace it. I am happy to embrace the view that we have no quality, no depth, no goal scorers, no passers, and no hope. I am happy to embrace the view that outside of Jason Puncheon, Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha, Crystal Palace have no ideas.
If this convenient line of thought with the media and rival fans continues to permeate, then I will welcome the arrival of an over confident Leicester who put five past United and were put on a pedestal or a Queens Park Rangers who thought that signing Rio Ferdinand was a ticket to security, when it may turn out to be a ticket out of the Football League entirely.
It is often said that there is no such thing as bad press, and the more that this football club is subjected to negativity from the outside, the more I find the positivity circling around the squad inside the hallowed walls of Selhurst. Quality is what you do not see on a highlight reel at 11.45pm on a Saturday night. Quality is what Scott Dann exudes in his positioning and playing ability. Quality has been Damien Delaney’s ability to prove so many doubters wrong, with colossal performances this season and last season. Quality is James McArthur, Mile Jedinak and Joe Ledley taking hold of a game like they did last week. Quality is the manner with which Palace killed off the game last week at 2-0, when so often in the past a silly goal would be leaked.
A ten minute highlight reel is pieced together to show a snippet of a game, enable a producer to formulate a narrative that allows wordsmiths like Robbie Savage or Phil Neville to wax lyrical about whatever is convenient. Pulis was quick to point it out to Gary Lineker last year about what he deemed an unfair perception of a Palace performance against Newcastle United, but I would not be so quick to encourage Neil Warnock to do the same this season.
Long may this negative perception continue as far as I am concerned. Their ignorance is Crystal Palace’s bliss.
As long as we can see what is developing before us every week, then that is all that matters to me. Let us all continue laughing at the ‘glamorous‘ soap operas at Loftus Road, Old Trafford, The Sports Direct Arena sponsored by Wonga and the rest, while we continue surprising everyone but ourselves.
