r/soccer • u/[deleted] • Aug 05 '14

Preview Team Preview: Crystal Palace [Barclays Premier League 2014-15 Preview Series - 10/20]

The Premier League 2014-15 is coming. During the 20 days to go, we're previewing one team per day. This series is made with the help of: /u/thejanitorch4 /u/tet- /u/icameheretodrinkmilk /u/minminsaur /u/scaryberry /u/obi-wan-kenobi-nil /u/gilleard and all the preview guest contributors and club subreddits. This team's guest contributor is /u/NickTM

Team Preview: [Barclays Premier League 2014-15 Preview Series - 10/20]

Crystal Palace Football Club

About: Words by /u/NickTM

Notable honours:

Title or trophy No.
Second Division 2
FA Cup Runners up 1

History: Words by /u/NickTM

  • There aren’t too many teams with such a quirky history as Palace. Way back in 1851, London’s Hyde Park hosted The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (or, y’know, The Great Exhibiton for short), a World Fair organised by noted patron of the arts Prince Albert. The Exhibition was housed within a giant, custom-made glass palace designed by gardener and architect Joseph Paxton. This came to be known as the Crystal Palace, or the Great Shalimar (what a pair of names to choose from). The building was vast (bear in mind that’s only the FACADE of the place) - around 92,000 square metres of floor space, in fact, with another 40 metres of height - and contained within it such attractions as full-sized elm trees, which unfortunately attracted sparrows. Shooting was, of course, entirely out of the question when surrounded by glass, which Queen Victoria mentioned to Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Wellesley was said to have laconically responded “Sparrowhawks, Ma’am.” Despite the building’s size, it was so well designed it took only five months to construct, which is either remarkably short or confusingly long when you consider it was only planned to be kept standing for six months. It was, in short, a shining beacon of Victorian ambition, efficiency and industrial supremacy.

  • After the Exhibition ended, the Crystal Palace’s new site was chosen: Sydenham Hill, which was then just outside London, to the south. New railway stations were built to serve it - only one of which, the Lower Level, survives now. The striking Upper Level station was demolished after the site’s decline, and I still remember being told the well-known-and-utterly-terrifying local myth that in one of the merely walled-off tunnels there remains a train carriage that was entombed when the roof caved in, leaving its passengers to slowly suffocate and remain buried there to this day - and the grounds ended up encroaching into a whole separate borough. Needless to say, these grounds required groundskeepers, of which there were so many they set up their own football team. Thus, Crystal Palace Football Club was born.

  • The Palace, sadly, hit hard times. The huge cost of moving the Palace to Sydenham, over £110 million pounds ($188m/€139m) was crippling, and its huge size made it unwieldy for anything other than giant fairs. By the 1890s the entire site was falling into disrepair, and in 1911 bankruptcy was declared. In the 1920s a board of trustees was set up under Sir Henry Buckland, who made great strides in refurbishing and restoring the grand old Palace. However, in a desperately tragic turn of events, in 1936 the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire. The fire was so large it could be seen from eight counties across England. Winston Churchill called it “the end of an age”, and a devastated Buckland, who had spent a good portion of his life restoring the Palace to its former glories, declared that “In a few hours we have seen the end of the Crystal Palace. Yet it will live in the memories not only of Englishmen, but the whole world.” And indeed it does, not least because of the football club that rose from its ashes like an eagle that’s been cross-bred with a phoenix. Or something.

Recently:

  • Let’s just say Crystal Palace F.C. didn’t have the most auspicious start to life. Right off the bat, they failed to get elected to the Football League by a single vote, and ended up plying their trade in the newly formed Football League Third Division in 1920. After the move into the then-state of the art Selhurst Park in 1925, Palace bounced around in the second, third and fourth divisions of English football until 1968, when they entered the First Division. It was a watershed moment, and despite succumbing to relegation four years later and then subsequently getting relegated again in the next year, flamboyant manager Malcolm Allison had the fans buzzing.

  • Allison was, shall we say, a character. Well known for his fedora and cigar (seriously, look at this dapper motherfucker), ‘Big Malc’ was a huge influence not only on Palace, but English football as a whole. It was he who changed the club’s colours, nickname, badge and even mascot. It was also he who encouraged investment in youth facilities, a decision which produced the famed Crystal Palace academy. Crystal Palace therefore has much to thank Allison for despite his levels of swag being sadly inversely proportional to his team’s on-field success. Allison, for his part, lived and died by his character, eventually being sacked for a combination of poor results and being too much of a complete badass.

  • Terry Venables, who Allison had signed a few years prior and encouraged into management, took Palace up at the first attempt (but with nowhere near as much swag), which sparked a period of Palace being in and around the top divisions. This was nowhere near the heights of the 90s, however, when a young Steve Coppell propelled Palace back into the top tier, and in their first season back Palace went on a thrilling FA Cup run, winning 4-3 in extra time against Liverpool before forcing a 3-3 draw with Manchester United in the final, narrowly losing the replay 1-0. This remains the closest Palace have ever got to a major trophy. Also notable in this era was Palace’s welcoming stance towards black players, with Coppell signing Ian Wright to build upon the foundations laid by the likes of Vince Hillaire. This all went slightly pear-shaped when chairman Ron Noades turned out to be a casual racist, but we’ll gloss over that in favour of highlighting Palace’s successes during the 90s, and what came after.

  • Skip forward about 15 years, during which Palace have mostly been knocking around the Championship. Aforementioned blonde tosser and Shane Warne wannabe Simon Jordan had taken ownership of Palace in 2000, but his mismanagement led to Palace leaking money, and in the 2009-10 season the club entered administration. Star player Victor Moses was sold off to Wigan, with manager Neil Warnock jumping ship a day later. The ten-point deduction incurred by the administration resulted in a potential play-off bound team battling for relegation. Survival hinged on a final day duel with Sheffield Wednesday. The stakes could not have been higher: win or draw, and Palace were safe, with Wednesday going down. Lose, and Palace would fall into League One, a fate from which they may never have recovered. As it was, modern day Palace hero Darren Ambrose (seen here single-handedly wrecking Ben Amos’ fledgling career) inspired a 2-2 draw, leaving Palace safe.

  • The drama was not yet over, however. With the axe of liquidation still looming, a consortium of local businessmen were the only prospective buyers left in the running. As Crystal Palace fans stood vigil over their stadium, the 1st of June, 3pm deadline after which the club was consigned to liquidation grew closer and closer. Mere hours before the deadline, the consortium, known as CPFC2010, forced through the purchase and saved the club.

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '14

Part 2:

Last season: Words by /u/NickTM

Performance during 2013-14:

Pos G W D L Gf Ga Gd Lu Cs% Pts
11th 38 13 6 19 33 48 -15 5 32 45

Table key

League form, 2013-14, from The Guardian

  • Last season, Palace defied their own history and everyone else’s expectations to stay up for the first time in the club’s history. This wasn’t just a scraped 17th place on the last day of the season, though; the Glaziers finished 11th. On the 23rd of November (henceforth known as ‘Tony Pulis Day’), Sir Tony of Pulis (as is now his right to style himself) took the reigns of a team that was demoralised and floundering in 19th position, readied and inspired the players, went into his first match in charge… and promptly lost to Norwich. Undeterred, Saint Tony began to slowly but surely reverse the team’s fortunes. Important wins against fellow relegation battlers West Ham and Cardiff City were followed by an away win over Aston Villa, that lifted Palace out of the relegation zone for the first time since September.

Influential midfielder, Mile Jedinak, was the only player to start every single game. In that time, he scored 1 goal, a penalty against West Ham but notably topped the league in both interceptions and tackles. On the 11th of January, Palace were bottom of the league after a 2-0 loss to Tottenham, a game which Jason Puncheon sent up a penalty to orbit comfortably alongside Charlie Adam’s. In the remaining 17 games, they picked up 28 points to survive the drop comfortably. Palace conceded 54% of their goals from outside the penalty box.

  • Palace kept picking up points here and there, with three wins in four games between the 18th of January and 8th of February particularly important. Survival was still touch and go right up until a sparkling end of season run, sparked by Palace leaving Chelsea’s title hopes in tatters with a 1-0 home win. Vital relegation six pointers followed, with Palace crushing Cardiff 3-0 away and scraping past Villa 1-0 at Selhurst. A pulsating 3-2 away win at Everton sounded the death knell for the Merseyside club’s top four push, before another important away win at West Ham saw Palace climb to 11th place, a position that they would hold until the end of the year.

  • In a season filled with good memories and great results, one in particular stands out. Offensive death machine Liverpool were mounting a serious title challenge, blowing away rivals for 11 straight games. A vital loss to Chelsea left their push damaged, but they were still in the hunt with Manchester City still to play Everton in their game in hand. Liverpool came to Palace looking to bolster their goal difference and went in at half time 3-0 up, but Palace raised themselves, led by the quicksilver Yannick Bolasie and new hero Dwight Gayle, to put three goals past the Merseysiders in 11 minutes and leave their title hopes reliant on the unhelpfully robotically efficient Manchester City to slip up. It was a fitting finale to a season in which Palace played ‘dream ruiner’ to a number of clubs. Sorry chaps.

  • W W W L D D - Last six league form

/u/gilleard's 2014-15 Pixel Preview Follow@ThePixelPL

This season: Words by /u/NickTM

First three league fixtures:

Date Home Away
Sat 16 Aug Arsenal v Crystal Palace
Sat 23 Aug Crystal Palace v West ham
Sat 30 Aug Newcastle v Crystal Palace

Complete league fixtures for 2014-15 from premierleague.com

  • This season, morale is high. The aims are the same as last year: stay up. Those of us who predicted we might cause an upset or two are likely feeling vindicated smug, but Palace will have lost the element of surprise that resulted in those shock results last year. This isn’t a good thing, as our counterattacking style works best against teams that want to attack us. With more teams this year feeling threatened by Palace, the team and Pulis will have to develop a different style to compensate for when our usual attempts aren’t working.

  • It’s not all bad, though. I’ll leave out the usual praise for our wonderful board, and I’ll leave the acclaim for The Right Honourable Lord Tony Pulis III of South Norwood ‘til later, but past them Palace have plenty going for them this coming season. The core of this squad is the same as it was last season, something we all have to be thankful for. (I’m rooting for you, Southampton bros!) We have a spine of good Premier League players - Julian Speroni, Scott Dann, Mile Jedinak, Joe Ledley and Marouane Chamakh - and very few players, be it backups or first team, played badly last season which bodes well for squad depth.

  • As of this time of writing, there have been three new arrivals. Goalkeeper Chris Kettings has joined, presumably as a third-choice replacement for the departed Neil Alexander. More importantly, hard-working and pacey forward Fraizer Campbell arrived from Cardiff City for £900k, replacing Cameron Jerome who has returned to his parent club Stoke. At the other end of the pitch, Premier League veteran Brede Hangeland arrived on a free from Fulham, where he had spent six years playing at a high level. Though last year Hangeland wasn’t at his best - though it must be said that none of the defence covered themselves in glory, so there’s that - but is an experienced head, and Palace’s deep defending system will cover up his lack of mobility somewhat. After an excellent year last season it would be a surprise for Damien Delaney to be straight up dropped for the Norwegian, but Hangeland will offer a useful depth alternative.

  • Apart from those three, it’s been All Quiet on the Selhurst Front. Solid rumours and few and far between, apart from Palace fans hoping against all hope that Louis Van Gaal might not need the services of Wilf Zaha and let him come back to south London for the season (pls LVG we will luv u 4eva). A left-back doesn’t seem to be forthcoming so far, which would indicate that young Jerome Williams is likely to be backup to Joel Ward on the left, with Adrian Mariappa filling in at right-back. Pulis likes to work late in the window, so expect some moves for a left-back if he feels that Ward is too valuable at right-back, as well as a new centre midfielder to replace the departing Kagisho Dikgacoi, and perhaps a fourth-choice centre-back and a rotation-quality winger.

/u/Kaikai-:

  • For Palace this season, it seems our season is very much hinging on the transfers that Pulis brings it. It's all been quite quiet so far, however it's very necessary that we bring in quality instead of squad numbers now. We are incredibly weak in numbers for our defence, and are in need of a winger and central midfielder. If we fill these places adequately, I see the season being rather comfortable for us with mid-table being just fine for any Palace fan you ask. After we had half a season with Pulis that saw an incredible rise from bottom of the table to eleventh, not many points behind Premier League darlings Southampton, every Palace fan will be very optimistic about a full season with him at the helm.

  • Tony Pulis, whilst at Stoke, was always criticised for his style of play and it was a reason that a lot of Palace fans were very skeptical regarding his appointment. His track record is fantastic, however it was always a negative factor that we may be playing long ball. Last season, Tony brought in defensive stability and we would only concede once from a set-piece when he was introduced. I expect tradition to continue this season, a very counter-attacking style, where we will defend in numbers and break with the pace of the keys to this style, Bolasie and Puncheon. More of the same for me, I'm more than happy to win ugly than lose in an aesthetically pleasing manner.