Eze centre stage in Palace's 'golden era' - Oppo profile
Monday, 16th Sep 2024 17:39 by Clive Whittingham

It's been a somewhat sluggish start for Crystal Palace after a summer in which they had four players in the England Euros squad alone and lost Michael Olise, but with our old star boy Ebere Eze front and centre this is still something of a golden era for the club according to Jim Daly from the Five Year Plan Podcast.

How's the season started for Palace? Only two points, and it didn't look the most challenging of starts with Brentford, West Ham and Leicester...

A lot of Palace fans, myself included, are/were still feeling the buzz from the end of last season when we had an incredible run of six wins from the last seven, smashing goals in left right and centre. It was proper dreamland and there was an expectation that would carry on into the new season. I know we lost Olise but keeping Guehi, Eze, Mateta… everyone was hoping it would happen again. The reality is Palace massively over performed in that period and we’ve had something of a reality check. It hasn’t helped that Mateta has played all summer, Eze went to the Euros, we’ve sold Andersen which was a bit of a surprise, Wharton went to the Euros… quite a lot of the squad is still getting up to speed and I think for once the international break is a welcome thing for us. Truth is we’re behind schedule a little bit. Brentford and West Ham are good teams, West Ham have spent a lot of money, no easy games in the Premier League. We were also incredibly unlucky – Eze had a legitimate goal disallowed against Brentford, we dominated against West Ham and couldn’t score then got hit on the break. I don’t think performances have been bad, it’s been unlucky more than a poor start. The performance and point at Chelsea in the third game was encouraging.

Palace so far…
Brentford 2-1 Palace Mbeumo 29, Wissa 76 – Pinnock og 57
Palace 0-2 West Ham Soucek 67, Bowen 72
Palace 4-0 Norwich Kamada 2, Mateta 57, 68, Sarr 84
Chelsea 1-1 Palace Jackson 25 – Eze 53
Palace 2-2 Leicester Mateta 47, pen 90 – Vardy 21, Mavididi 46

Why haven't you sold Eze yet? Send some of that immoral Premier League petro-dollar our way you cowards.

I’m as surprised as you. I thought he’d go. His performances towards the end of last season, getting in the Euros squad, some of his cameos in the summer, I thought he would go. I thought Oscar Bobb’s injury at Man City would be curtains for Eze at Palace – a perfect opportunity for City to trigger the £60m release clause. They didn’t for whatever reason, that deadline has come and gone. It’slike we were just waiting for the inevitable to happen and then it went quiet. It was like being in the eye of the storm and you were waiting for the wind to start swirling and the rumours to kick up but it never came. Delighted though, because I love Ebs. I don’t think he’s been particularly brilliant in the first three games, the goal against Chelsea is why you have him in the team. A pedestrian performance in that game and then within three seconds he’s won you a point doing what only Ebs can. I’m delighted he’s stayed. It’ll only be for one more year, I’ll savour every moment and you guys will make your money just be patient.

Oliver Glasner - messiah? Naughty boy?

Neither really. Slightly more messiah tendencies living off the honeymoon of last season. He looks genuine, talks a lot of sense, got pedigree and I like the way we play. Not convinced he has much of a plan B - when it’s not going well he takes off one of the back five and while it’s no kind of comparison really has that Holloway tendency to just throw a few forward players on and see what happens. A lot of that is down to options. Why we’ve loaned out Edouard without replacing him I don’t know because we’re light in attack. I’d have kept Ayew but I guess it made sense to get £8m for a player we paid £2m fort six years ago, incredible business, but we don’t have a lot of options. We’ve loaned out Rak-Sakyi and some other youngsters reducing our options further. That’s not Glasner’s fault though. He looks sensible and that’s not always the case with Palace managers. He found a system for Palace last season and had that run, he’s produced some great football and it looks from the outside like he’s a good man manager to get people like Mateta firing who his predecessors had struggled with.

Where does the League Cup fit in your priority list? Where does Feels like a realistic target for a trophy/European football for you guys and yet every year I see midtable Prem clubs just sacking it off...

In my personal priority I’d like it to be higher for Palace as it’s our best chance of European football. We never have good cup runs. The last one was 2016 when we made the final of the FA Cup under Alan Pardew, that masked horrendous league form and a slide down the table but both the cups are magical. It’s about time Palace had a good run. Given the players we’ve got – Wharton, Ebs, Mateta – that feels like a cup team, cup run vibes. Obviously I hope we beat you guys and would love to go on a bit of a run. A lot of Prem teams do tend to sack off the League Cup and I do get it because your prioritise staying in the league but I think we have enough quality to do that anyway this season and I think we should go for it, starting on Tuesday.

Why haven't you sold Eze yet?

Pipe down you. Be patient. It’ll happen. When it does it’ll probably be for even more than you expected, after all good things come to those who wait.

How do you assess your transfer activity this summer? Feels like you've wanted Nketiah forever. Big blow to lose Olise. Quite surprised you let Andersen go…

We have been after Nketiah, and Ismaila Sarr, for a while. They’re both Dougie Freedman signings rather than the manager signings. Nothing against them, they’re good players, but I wonder how that balances out in terms of the manager picking them. I think he will. I’m not sure where Nketiah plays in this Palace team really. He’s not going to get in front of Mateta, he can’t play ‘ten’ because that’s where Ebs plays, Kamada hasn’t really settled yet, Sarr plays as a winger. So not sure how that all fits together at the moment. They’re all good players.

The outgoings have been interesting. Olise was always going to go, you’ll always struggle to keep hold of a player like him and you just enjoy the memories. He’s in the France squad, doing well at Bayern, he’s the only player I’ve ever seen at Palace I think has a genuine chance of going on to win the Balon D’Or. That’s a mental thing to say about a Palace player, but it’s not a big stretch. Andersen is a big loss but we have signed Lacroix and Chalobah. We’re pretty packed in defence but Andersen is a big loss I think – no guarantee those guys will come in and do as well as he did. Edouard and Ayew, as said, I think that was a bit mad.

It’s arguably our strongest ever Premier League squad so on that it’s been a good window, but rating it on how this all fits into a system and options we have from the bench which is just essentially Jeffrey Schlupp again as it has been for the last eight years… we’ll see what happens. Not a bad window.

Ins >>> Eddie Nketiah, 25, CF, Arsenal, £25m >>> Maxence Lacroix, 24, CB, Wolfsburg, £15m >>> Ismaila Sarr, 26, RW, Marseilla, £12m >>> Chadi Riad, 21, CB, Real Betis, £11m >>> Daichi Kamada, 27, AM, Lazio, Free >>> Louie Moulden, 22, GK, Wolves, Free >>> Trevoh Chalobah, 25, CB, Chelsea, Loan >>> Matt Turner, 30, GK, Forest, Loan

Outs >>> Michael Olise, 22, RW, Bayern, £50m >>> Joachim Andersen, 28, CB, Fulham, £25m >>> Sam Johnstone, 31, GK, Wolves, £8m >>> Jordan Ayew, 32, CF, Leicester, Undisclosed >>> Scott Banks, 22, RW, St Pauli, £300k >>> Jairo Riedewald, 27, DM, Royal Antwerp, Free >>> Odsonne Edouard, 26, CF, Leicester, Loan >>> Naoirou Ahamada, 22, CM, Stade Rennais, Loan >>> Jesurun Rak-Sakyi 21, RW, Sheff Utd, Loan >>> Malcolm Ebiowei, 20, RW, Oxford, Loan >>> Joe Whitworth, 20, GK, Exeter, Loan >>> David Ozoh, 219, DM, Derby, Loan >>> Nathan Ferguson, 23, CB, Released >>> James Tomkins, 35, CB, Released

What are your expectations for how this season will go?

I think we’ll finish twelfth. Three certainties in life: death, taxes, Palace finishing twelfth. If we were to get big injuries up top to Nketiah and Mateta we’d be in trouble but we’re stacked in defence, Turner I don’t rate massively but he’s fine as back up to Henderson who’s very good. Midfield is very strong with Doucoure, Wharton, Hughes and Lerma all great options. If we have any issues this year it’ll be scoring goals. With a player like Eze, if he stays fit, I can see him having a big season – he’s the focal point now, everything goes through him, he has a good game and Palace have a good game, he has a bad game and he can still pull a rabbit out of the hat as he did at Chelsea.

I think Palace fans would love to see us push on into the top ten after the fantastic form we finished in last year. If we play like that even for bits of this season we stand a good chance because I think we’re good enough. But a lot of teams have strengthened this summer and it’s always difficult. Mid-table finish, there or thereabouts.

Have you considered selling Eze at all?

That is an interesting point. Have we thought about selling Eze? Hadn’t thought about that, I’ll drop Steve a line and let him know. It’s come right out of leftfield that question.

What is success for Palace? I sometimes look at these clubs that seem to exist to just not get relegated from the Prem, ditch out of both cups in case you have to play too many games and the poor footballers get tired, and serve as cannon fodder for Man City and wonder what's the point... But then you're rather prone to winning at Man City I suppose.

It’s a question Palace fans have deep, lengthy arguments about on our message board. I think it depends on how old you are. I know this is old man yelling at cloud but I’ve supported them for 30 years and in that time they’ve been the most relegated team from the Premier League at one stage, they’ve nearly gone out of business via administration twice, and it’s only in the last ten years we’ve established ourselves as a Premier League team. Even saying those words is mad for a Palace fan, I’m used to us being a basket case. We’re now a well run, established Premier League team with world class players, England internationals… it’s everything I dreamed of as a young Palace fan. I’m just enjoying that ride. Inevitably at some point we will get relegated, because for everybody outside the top six (and even some teams who have been in that top six) that time does come. It’s the circular nature of football. I think we’re in a strong place in terms of ownership, we’ve got the development of the main stand hopefully starting next place, there’s a legacy in place from the current owners with the academy, the squad is strong. We’re in a good place. Most fans are happy.

I don’t want to be one of those fans always demanding more and more and more, and then you end up doing a Charlton or a Stoke or a Sunderland. I’m happy where we are. We’re only a few 50/50 chances away from winning five more games in a season and then you are into Europe. On the flip side you’re only the same margin away from five more defeats and slipping into the relegation zone. With players like Eze in our team, and Olise last year, there’s never been a more enjoyable time to watch Palace play football – it really is a golden era. When my kids grow up I hope they support Palace because if they don’t I’ll kick them out, and if they do I think they’ll be asking me about the 2020s as a Palace fan. I’m enjoying it. I’d like a cup run. But finishing twelfth, the odd good result against a Man City, Man Utd or Chelsea again, then I’ll be happy.

It’s a boring answer, but it’s the truth.

Links >>> Palace Official Website >>> Five Year Plan – Contributor’s Podcast >>> The Holmesdale – Palace Forum >>> CPFC BBS – Forum >>> Back of the Nest – Podcast

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