Crystal Palace 2019-20, spinning their wheels

candylandriots

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If I'm remembering right, this is Palace's 7th consecutive season in the top flight, the longest run in their history. Despite relegation battles at one point or another in pretty much all of those seasons, they have always found a way to get it done. That said, for the first time I can remember, I think that this team is worse than last season's team, with the possibility of that situation deteriorating further if Wilf Zaha is sold, or mopes until he is.

In: Jordan Ayew (loan to permanent), Stephen Henderson (3rd choice GK). Not much to fire up the fan base there.
Out: Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£45m +, to Man U), Michy Batsuhayi (loan ended) and a bunch of backups (Julian Speroni, Jason Puncheon, Bakary Sako)

Rumors now are that Everton is interested in Zaha and not balking at his £80m price tag. Arsenal reportedly offered an insulting £40m for him, which is embarrassing even for Arsenal. He's worth at least £100m to this team, because without him, they have to be top favorites to go down. Steve Parrish (the principal owner) has shown the willingness to spend, but it usually seems to be in panic mode, and never in a way to allow a player to comfortably gel with the team. I thought that selling AWB for the price they got was good business -- he was basically a windfall at 6th on the depth chart at RB two years ago, and now he's starting at Man U and Palace is considerably richer for it. I think he was a luxury to keep for a team that has bigger needs, but they need to spend at least some of that money, because as we all know, staying still in the EPL is the same as getting worse, as all every other team is adding new talent.

This team really needs someone like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who bossed the center of the park when he was on a loan with Palace, and they need a goal-scorer. Christian Benteke was that guy for one season, but he's turned back into a pumpkin. Roy Hodgson said that he needed to be torn down and started all over again (ala Roy Halladay) because he had been so poorly coached. I'm not sure that it's working, but it would be nice to see him put some goals in this year. Or, if Conor Wickham can stay healthy for more than 15 minutes, he might be an option too.

I think they're set at GK and CB, if Tomkins and Sakho are healthy. Those three were solid. I'm not sure if Patrick van Aanholt is going to make it through the year, as his defensive skills, which were always not his strong point, have deteriorated. Joel Ward is a competent replacement for AWB. At midfield, Captain Luka Milivojevich is the best £10m I think that they've spent since I've followed them. He leads the team in goals (mainly via penalties) and is a solid, tough defender in midfield. Depending on the formation, players like Jeffrey Schlupp, Max Meyer, James MacArthur and Andros Townsend are all solid, but nobody is there to really run the offense and find the key passes.

Up front, you have Benteke, Zaha and Ayew. You know my thoughts on Zaha - he is one of the best players in the EPL, and if he played for a big club, he'd be a much bigger name. The problem is, he knows that too. And though he's been very loyal to Palace, especially after a fairly disastrous spell at Man U, I understand him wanting to move on to bigger and better. It's just, the team frankly sucks without him. Hopefully Benteke can get his head screwed on straight. I enjoyed having Batsuhayi last year, but it looks like, especially given Chelsea's transfer status, he won't be back. Anything we get from Conor Wickham is gravy, but he could be a solid player.

I'm expecting most of the money they earned on Wan-Bissaka to go into renovating the stadium. The question is, whether that nice new stadium will be presenting games in the Premier League. They need to add some talent if that's going to be assured. I'm hoping for top 10, but realistically, I'd take 16th if it were offered to me right now.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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The Zaha situation just seems sort of impossible. Zaha clearly wants to test himself playing for a big club. But the only big club plausibly in for him is Arsenal (sorry Everton fans) and its not really clear that would change next summer (maybe Chelsea would want him, but they've got CHO and Pulisic on the wings already and could also want a splashier signing after a year of transfer ban). Yet Arsenal simply don't have the money to pay what he seems to be worth to Palace.
 

67YAZ

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Yet Arsenal simply don't have the money to pay what he seems to be worth to Palace.
Per the clause in the transfer from ManU, Palace has to send 20% of the profit back to Manchester. Palace paid £6m for Zaha, so it's hard to fault the club for holding out for a fee big enough to actually help replenish the squad.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Jul 2, 2006
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Per the clause in the transfer from ManU, Palace has to send 20% of the profit back to Manchester. Palace paid £6m for Zaha, so it's hard to fault the club for holding out for a fee big enough to actually help replenish the squad.
Yup. In the abstract, its hard to see why Palace should sell unless that last Zaha contract included a handshake agreement that they would let him move to a bigger club for a reasonable fee if he had the opportunity. There is so much at stake financially in staying up and once you go down there is no guarantee of getting back quickly given the competitiveness of the championship.
 

bsj

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Dec 6, 2003
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Will be interesting to see how the season unfolds. Palace has always been my "other" team after QPR and I am hopefully at least one of them remains up in the top flight. QPR is a loooooong way off.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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The Zaha situation just seems sort of impossible. Zaha clearly wants to test himself playing for a big club. But the only big club plausibly in for him is Arsenal (sorry Everton fans) and its not really clear that would change next summer (maybe Chelsea would want him, but they've got CHO and Pulisic on the wings already and could also want a splashier signing after a year of transfer ban). Yet Arsenal simply don't have the money to pay what he seems to be worth to Palace.
Don’t want him for that money. Toffees have other positions of need -striker, DM, RB - and we’re in relatively good shape with wingers.
 

candylandriots

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Per the clause in the transfer from ManU, Palace has to send 20% of the profit back to Manchester. Palace paid £6m for Zaha, so it's hard to fault the club for holding out for a fee big enough to actually help replenish the squad.
I know that one of the reported major negotiation points on the Aaron Wan-Bissaka deal with United was regarding the Zaha sell-on fee. It’s very possible that it was reduced (or can I hope even eliminated?) when Palace sold AWB. I have no ideas how anyone finds this out, but it was one of the rumors.