Through the last few weeks, there has been great pessimism surrounding Palace with the loss of arguably our greatest-ever player, larger clubs alledgedly circling for our best talents and incomings limited to a sibling and a free agent.
However, the season hasn’t started yet and there is still space for optimism around Palace in this sea of gloom and despair.
Young Squad
First and foremost, the core of our squad is still young and thus one would assume set to improve. Our spine of Marc Guehi (23) Joachim Andersen (27) and Eberechi Eze (25) is complemented by the likes of Chris Richards (23), Tyrick Mitchell (23) and Naouirou Ahamada (21) and could soon be bolstered by talents such as Jesurun Rak Sakyi (20), David Ozoh (18), Killian Phillips (21) and Jake O’Brien (22).
This solid pool of talent is no fluke as Palace’s recruitment has become more aggressive by the club with smart acquisitions seeing these players and more brought in for smaller fees. This complements an academy, now upgraded to Category 1 status, which will start to produce even more talent given its location. It has already produced results in the Premier League 2 and Under 18 leagues as well as a final in the Premier League International Cup.
I have neglected to mention Michael Olise (who, in my opinion, is our greatest young talent) so far with a lack of clarity surrounding his injury sustained on international duty with France and future at the club. However, if he was to leave, we should receive a princely sum as it does appear he no longer has a £35million release clause in his contract. Even so, it seems his departure is not as imminent as first thought and we should be treated to at least six more months of his wand of a left foot.
Transfers
As of writing, there is a little under two weeks until our opening fixture at Sheffield United leaving plenty of time for us to complete the rumoured Matheus Franca deal, which seems to be in its final stages, and thus getting our attacking addition needed after the Wilfried Zaha departure. It also leaves ample time for Dougie Freedman to work on more additions to the squad with names like Demarai Gray, Ruben Vargas, Wilfried Gnoto and Crysencio Summerville being floated.
Strangely, many have begun to doubt our recruitment credentials despite most recent additions being very effective. One only has to look at the youthful and talented players we are being linked with to see how far we have come from windows like four years ago where our two summer signings were Jordan Ayew and Gary Cahill.
Context
Palace fans have perhaps forgotten some of the dire straights we have been in before whether it be Frank de Boer’s first six games or the aforementioned 2019 window. Our spine is far greater in quality than it has ever been with the addition of Jefferson Lerma and Ahamada seemingly bright progression. In addition, it doesn’t hurt to look at other clubs of similar stature and how they are operating: West Ham United, for example, faced virtually the same problem as us losing their star player and they have yet to replace him and it seems they may not even do so.
Manager Situation
Some say old, I prefer wise, but whatever way you see Roy Hodgson his impact last year was undeniable, unlocking Eze and breathing new life into a stagnant attack. This is seen in our through ball completion which according to FBref went from 0.67 a game under Patrick Viera to 2.1 a game under Hodgson with Palace completing five more through balls in 16 fewer games.
It is clear a lot of the skepticism around Hodgson originates from the fact he managed a team with limited talent in his first spell and yet, even then he could grind out results. He may be the perfect stop gap as Palace allow themselves time to acquire the perfect manager to continue the project.
Yes, there are and always will be problems at Palace: conflict between investors, delay over the new stand, and our fear of buying right backs. But, we could be and have been in far worse positions than we are right now.
