Topic: Crystal Palace

[jackh]

Looks as though there a few threads on here about Palace managers and various other things, but not something more general.

A few recent posts in the Hodgson thread seem like sensible places to start (particularly given they're not about Hodgson):

A new manager next season and almost a new squad. Got potential for disaster this lot.

Sounds like Nuno's off there then.

Yep. More than a dozen players on expiring contracts including Hennessey, Townsend, Cahill, Benteke, van Aanholt, Clyne, McCarthy, Kelly and Sakho. It's mad they got themselves in this situation

Palace fans will presumably be pretty happy with they way things have gone since they were promoted, and they find themselves in what is probably the best period of the club's history (though the period from mid-80s to late-90s looks like it was alright too).  The uncertainty around the squad and a change in manager present both opportunity & threat, though.

[Fromola]

They look a nap to go down if 1 or 2 of the promoted teams are any good.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Well, if they are getting Nuno, they must be having some sort of a deal with Mendes, so we should expect for some of Gestifute's players to join in the summer ...

[OOS]

Eze is too good to be playing for them. Would love him here.

[Drinks Sangria]

Eze is too good to be playing for them. Would love him here.

Shame about his injury. He is a cracking player to watch, but he'll miss the bulk of next season it seems.

Massive blow for Palace, especially given the amount of players they have out of contract, it's quite the list:

Benteke, Schlupp, Townsend, Sakho, Van Aanholt, Clyne, McCarthy, McArthur, Ward, Cahill, Dann, Kelly, Hennessey, Wickham, Henderson and Woods.

I don't think I've ever seen a Premier League club allow so many of their players fall out of contract at the same time. Some have been offered new deals, some are heavily rumoured to have got new clubs lined up, pretty much all are reckoned to leave. Some are 'deadwood,' but by and large that's the guts of their first team.

Factor in Eze's injury and Zaha wanting to leave and you've got an issue.

Do they have the funds to fuck with Mendes? Do they have the funds for a rebuild?

Swansea's Cooper is apparently their back up if they don't get Nuno.

[gerrardisgod]

Seems to be they’ve got verbal deals in place for some of the players (only seen Benteke and Townsend mentioned) but they’re just waiting on the new manager to sign off on them. Still a dangerous way to go about things.

[Jwils21]

Shame about his injury. He is a cracking player to watch, but he'll miss the bulk of next season it seems.

Massive blow for Palace, especially given the amount of players they have out of contract, it's quite the list

It's especially strange considering how many of those played over 10 games this season too

Benteke - 30
Schlupp - 27
Townsend - 34
Van Aanholt - 22
Clyne - 13
McCarthy - 16
McArthur - 18
Ward - 26
Cahill - 20
Dann - 15

Townsend is one of the better players at the club, and Sakho, Dann & Cahill are their first choice centre halves. Either they've got a massive rebuild ahead or they're in trouble

[Drinks Sangria]

Seems to be they’ve got verbal deals in place for some of the players (only seen Benteke and Townsend mentioned) but they’re just waiting on the new manager to sign off on them. Still a dangerous way to go about things.

I heard Townsend wanted to field offers before returning with his decision. Benteke I'm surprised they're offering an extension to! They probably do to be fair, strange of them not to get them signed up with or without a manager, especially the ones with market value.

Either they've got a massive rebuild ahead or they're in trouble

I think both.

They're at present being linked with Abraham, Ismaila Sarr, Dan James and Batshuayi permanently. I can see at least one that's wildly unrealistic there and two that I don't think really fix any issues.

[sinnermichael]

Benteke signs a new contract.

[sinnermichael]

Zaha says he wants to leave, again. Hardly news is it?

[disgraced cake]

Zaha says he wants to leave, again. Hardly news is it?

Everton. Please.

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Zaha says he wants to leave, again. Hardly news is it?

Hugely overrated, his goals and assists wouldn't even warrant half the price tag Palace would be asking, yeah he's in a poor team, but cream rises to the top, there have been loads of attackers over the years posting great numbers while playing in a shit team, Zaha isn't one of them.

[sinnermichael]

Everton. Please.

About the best he can hope for these days.

He'd be lucky if the likes of Spurs or Arsenal even considered him.

[disgraced cake]

About the best he can hope for these days.

He'd be lucky if the likes of Spurs or Arsenal even considered him.

Would have been perfect for him if he'd left two summers ago. He was off the back of probably his best season for Palace and was 26, so at a good age where he'd had a lot of experience, but had some of his best years ahead of him. In the past couple of years though he's not done any better and is at an age where I don't think anybody is going to want to spend big on him. I don't think he'd have propelled them to trophies by any means, but I think his best bet would have been Arsenal at the time, but they signed Pepe instead. I think Emery wanted to sign Zaha too.

He'll play for Palace for the rest of his career I reckon.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

Hugely overrated, his goals and assists wouldn't even warrant half the price tag Palace would be asking, yeah he's in a poor team, but cream rises to the top, there have been loads of attackers over the years posting great numbers while playing in a shit team, Zaha isn't one of them.

Can do stepovers on FIFA though can't he.

[skipper757]

Yea, a couple of years ago would've been better for him.  He'd shown his quality, but the one area of concern would be the transition to a more-possession based side.  It's one thing to be the outlet for a defensive side with 10 men behind the ball, but it's another to be part of a possession-oriented team breaking down teams.  There's also the matter of defensive work rate and pressing.  The younger he is, the more exciting the prospect would be that he could take his game up to another level playing for a top club and that he could adapt to the demands.

Now he's 28, and he still has a couple of years left on his contract, right?  Given the turnover at Palace, they'd probably want a decent fee for him as keeping him would give them better chance of avoiding relegation.

[jackh]

Yea, a couple of years ago would've been better for him.  He'd shown his quality, but the one area of concern would be the transition to a more-possession based side.  It's one thing to be the outlet for a defensive side with 10 men behind the ball, but it's another to be part of a possession-oriented team breaking down teams.  There's also the matter of defensive work rate and pressing.  The younger he is, the more exciting the prospect would be that he could take his game up to another level playing for a top club and that he could adapt to the demands.

Now he's 28, and he still has a couple of years left on his contract, right?  Given the turnover at Palace, they'd probably want a decent fee for him as keeping him would give them better chance of avoiding relegation.

On the other hand, bringing in a decent fee could be valuable when you consider Palace might have a quite significant signing-on fee bill this summer.

[Barefoot Doctor]

Going to go out on a limb and suggest they may sign some Portuguese lads.

Wouldn't surprise me if they're almost half expecting to be relegated, and treating this as the chance for a proper rebuild. Nuno has experience of getting promoted from the Championship.

[Fortneef]

Please indulge me in a thought experiment

Imagine the football fairy godmother appears to you and says

"Due to a weird cosmic magickal concordance, Liverpool are fated to get 50% more points than Palace next season.

Who do you pick as Palace's next manager? Dyche, Howe, Lampard, or Nuno ?"

[stockdam]

Looks like they've got Nuno in

In my opinion, the best manager that they could aspire to. Nuno is a very good manager and will hopefully end up at one of the top clubs (and I don't mean any disrespect to Palace).

[Max_powers]

Please indulge me in a thought experiment

Imagine the football fairy godmother appears to you and says

"Due to a weird cosmic magickal concordance, Liverpool are fated to get 50% more points than Palace next season.

Who do you pick as Palace's next manager? Dyche, Howe, Lampard, or Nuno ?"

Out of those Nuno is the most likely to break the 50 point barrier.

[Barefoot Doctor]

Apparently Palace have pulled out of the Nuno deal.

[rafathegaffa83]

Apparently Palace have pulled out of the Nuno deal.

At least with Nuno arriving you could expect a number of Mendes clients to follow. I think their chances of going down have increased. According to the Fail, he had new demands that may have been linked to Everton's interest. Telegraph more plausibly claiming the sticking point was the budget for his backroom staff

[BarryCrocker]

Apparently Palace have pulled out of the Nuno deal.

Eddie Howe is still looking for a gig.

[Drinks Sangria]

Eddie Howe is still looking for a gig.

Out of the young(er), hyped English coaches, I think Howe is closer on the scale to Lampard than he is a Gerrard or Potter. He genuinely achieved something special in the early years at Bournemouth, but crashed and burned at Burnley and showed a lot of naivety and spent money badly in his final two years.

I think the Celtic job would have been disastrous for him and as much as he seems an okay bloke, I have this nagging feeling he's not much of a coach.

[sinnermichael]

Out of the young(er), hyped English coaches, I think Howe is closer on the scale to Lampard than he is a Gerrard or Potter. He genuinely achieved something special in the early years at Bournemouth, but crashed and burned at Burnley and showed a lot of naivety and spent money badly in his final two years.

I think the Celtic job would have been disastrous for him and as much as he seems an okay bloke, I have this nagging feeling he's not much of a coach.

Brighton wouldn't be bad for Howe if Potter goes. You just know they'll go for Lampard though.

[Drinks Sangria]

Brighton wouldn't be bad for Howe if Potter goes. You just know they'll go for Lampard though.

Would be a dreadful appointment, just as I felt it was when Bournemouth were linked to Lampard.

Could be - rumours are circulating that Howe really just wants a South-coast Premier League job, which essentially means he waits for Brighton or Southampton to be vacant - not too unlikely one of those comes up this coming season, for one reason or another.

[rafathegaffa83]

The Athletic's piece on Nuno-Palace falling apart is revealing

- Mendes instigated the initial approach, not Palace (the cynic in me says he saw the opportunity that arose when all of those contracts expired)

- Nuno went from being not on the list (Dyche, Lampard, Ismael, Cooper was the original shortlist) to the top of it

-  Palace became put off by his wages and size of coaching staff (two first team coaches, GK coach, at least one fitness coach and a sports science/medical team). There was a fear, they would sack the incumbents and then Nuno would take the staff with him at the first opportunity

- Like the Mail, the Athletic are suggesting the Everton position seems to have been used as a bargaining chip, as Nuno has had talks with Everton, although there's no sense of how interested Everton are.

- There's a strong likelihood they move for Cooper or Ismael. But they've also now got the problem that they held off decisions on contract renewals for weeks because they wanted any new manager to give input

Also speaks volumes that on the one hand Palace want to cut costs, use younger players from the Academy and were worried about Mendes' influence, but at the same time seemed happy to have access to what Mendes could bring

[Drinks Sangria]

The Athletic's piece on Nuno-Palace falling apart is revealing

- Mendes instigated the initial approach, not Palace (the cynic in me says he saw the opportunity that arose when all of those contracts expired)

- Nuno went from being not on the list (Dyche, Lampard, Ismael, Cooper was the original shortlist) to the top of it

-  Palace became put off by his wages and size of coaching staff (two first team coaches, GK coach, at least one fitness coach and a sports science/medical team). There was a fear, they would sack the incumbents and then Nuno would take the staff with him at the first opportunity

- Like the Mail, the Athletic are suggesting the Everton position seems to have been used as a bargaining chip, as Nuno has had talks with Everton, although there's no sense of how interested Everton are.

- There's a strong likelihood they move for Cooper or Ismael. But they've also now got the problem that they held off decisions on contract renewals for weeks because they wanted any new manager to give input

Also speaks volumes that on the one hand Palace want to cut costs, use younger players from the Academy and were worried about Mendes' influence, but at the same time seemed happy to have access to what Mendes could bring

Cheers for posting Rafa. Interesting stuff. Cooper I think would be likely, it's a step up for him and unless he sees Swansea as a long term project that he can safely get into the Premier League, this might be his chance to join the upper echelons.

The part I've bolded is particularly interesting to me, because it seems to be partially the reason a lot of managerial talks have fallen through of late. You've got Nuno here, reportedly Howe at Celtic (though I just think he wasn't up for the move or the size of task) and Conte with Spurs (although transfer funds, wages and control were all sticking points) all being reported as wanting to bring in far more staff than the clubs were comfortable with. More than ever now, a managerial appointment doesn't seem to be one/two roles, it's getting into double figures and given staff turnover at top level clubs you can see why they don't want to essentially hire, fire and re-staff an entire department inside 18 months.

[Dim Glas]

Cheers for posting Rafa. Interesting stuff. Cooper I think would be likely, it's a step up for him and unless he sees Swansea as a long term project that he can safely get into the Premier League, this might be his chance to join the upper echelons.

The part I've bolded is particularly interesting to me, because it seems to be partially the reason a lot of managerial talks have fallen through of late. You've got Nuno here, reportedly Howe at Celtic (though I just think he wasn't up for the move or the size of task) and Conte with Spurs (although transfer funds, wages and control were all sticking points) all being reported as wanting to bring in far more staff than the clubs were comfortable with. More than ever now, a managerial appointment doesn't seem to be one/two roles, it's getting into double figures and given staff turnover at top level clubs you can see why they don't want to essentially hire, fire and re-staff an entire department inside 18 months.

the coaching staff size thing is bonkers. Seems to have really become a thing in recent years.  I mentioned it in the Spurs thread with Conte.  The speed managers come and go, clubs who do take on a staff of another 4 or 5 plus the manager are asking for trouble as yes, as pointed out, not just the money, but the fact that you end up with multiple spots to fill.

The way Kloppo did it here is the way to go, and the fact he didn’t come with an entourage speaks volumes. Bring 2 coaches, then once the club saw that yes, he is in fact pretty damn special, sign him up to a long term deal, then he gets major imput on other staff to bring in.

[Drinks Sangria]

the coaching staff size thing is bonkers. Seems to have really become a thing in recent years.  I mentioned it in the Spurs thread with Conte.  The speed managers come and go, clubs who do take on a staff of another 4 or 5 plus the manager are asking for trouble as yes, as pointed out, not just the money, but the fact that you end up with multiple spots to fill.

The way Kloppo did it here is the way to go, and the fact he didn’t come with an entourage speaks volumes. Bring 2 coaches, then once the club saw that yes, he is in fact pretty damn special, sign him up to a long term deal, then he gets major imput on other staff to bring in.

The bolded bit is absolutely spot on - if you earn it and prove your capability and perform well, you'll then be backed with respect towards your input on future hiring. Kloppo has essentially built his own team now, through his own performance in the first instance.

[[new username under construction]]

Ismael is ex CP player isn't he?

[Drinks Sangria]

Ismael is ex CP player isn't he?

I think he had one mediocre season for them in the late 90s. Not exactly a club legend or even a cult hero.

[Red-Soldier]

Ismael is ex CP player isn't he?

Yep.

Signed him on Champ Manager a couple of times.  An average CB he was.

[zimmie'5555]

I think he had one mediocre season for them in the late 90s. Not exactly a club legend or even a cult hero.

Was that the same season they bought Brolin and Lomardo?

[Sir Capon of Debaser]

Apparently Palace have pulled out of the Nuno deal.

Eh Oh, laa laa no step in the tubby custard

[Elzar]

Apparently Palace have pulled out of the Nuno deal.

Presumably agent problems.

[Drinks Sangria]

Was that the same season they bought Brolin and Lomardo?

Definitely same era roughly and they would have been at the club at the same time, if I recall correctly. Might see Lombardo in the coming days, I think he's Mancini's assistant with the national team, which would make sense as they were at Samp together.

Lombardo maybe a bit underrated as to how good a player he was, these days.

[zimmie'5555]

Definitely same era roughly and they would have been at the club at the same time, if I recall correctly. Might see Lombardo in the coming days, I think he's Mancini's assistant with the national team, which would make sense as they were at Samp together.

Lombardo maybe a bit underrated as to how good a player he was, these days.

Loved watching that Sampdoria side when they had Gullit, Mancini, Lombardo and Jugovic together.

[Crosby Nick]

Was that the same season they bought Brolin and Lomardo?

They had a Chinese player too. I was at uni with a Palace fan who claimed they were the most supported club in the world because of it!