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THE STORY SO FAR... (to 8th March 1999)
After landing in England I ended up sharing a flat with a
Crystal Palace fan. He had been a season ticket holder for
quite a few years (and so was used to suffering) but that
year turned out to be a bit different as they scraped into
the playoffs and, thanks to a last minute goal, made it to
the Premiership. Tipped by the pundits for a rapid return to
Division 1 they proved the professionals to be absolutely
correct and finished dead last. That they ended the season
with a manager who didn't speak English just seems so normal
for Palace.
At this point I decided to buy a season ticket on the
basis that it would be an interesting year. I was not to be
disappointed. So far, being three quarters of the way
through the season at the time of writing, the club has :
- been bought by Mark Goldberg for £23 million.
Even the most passionate fan would be struggling to
believe the club is worth that much. Mark claimed it
would be 'worth 50 million in five years'. Perhaps he was
talking in lira.
- appointed former England coach Terry Venables, rated
as the best in the country.
- bought and sold so many players that the team bares
little resemblance to one on the field last year
- after last year having an appalling home record where
it was in grave danger of not winning a single home match
it managed to turn that around. This year there has been
only one loss at home but only two wins away.
- played some brilliant stuff for a time. The 5-1
destruction of Norwich with Nicky Rizzo's screamer that
is contender for goal of the year; the bruising 3-2
encounter against Wolves showing that Palace now have a
bit of mongrel in them to counter the brutality of the
opposition that night; and the 4-1 win over Portsmouth
who had a massive contingent of fans continually chanting
slanderous statements against our then management.
- played some horrible stuff at times. Most of the away
games were dire although when performances were good
there was usually the bastard in the black to stuff
things up. Witness the shocking penalty decisions against
WBA and Bradford. However, to counter that there was
Sasa's dive against Watford but that still leaves us one
bad decision down!
- lost Terry Venables and most of his back room staff
due to lack of money. The fact the club was left with a
team in mid-table that comprised a lot of new faces on
fairly high wages probably helped hasten the
situation.
- reappointed Steve Coppell for the fourth time
as manager after moving him upstairs the previous
season.
- lost very good players. Matt Jansen said he wanted to
play Premiership football and realised he wasn't going to
get there with Palace this year. So he went to Blackburn.
At this point in time he's looking at Division 1 football
again very soon. Attillio Lombardo finally had enough and
went back to Serie A. This is a man who will be missed
for all the hard work he put in on and off the field to
go along with his wonderful talent and skill (Sasa take
note!).
- discovered that the club was a lot further in debt
than originally thought and had the administrators called
in.
- continued sliding down the table to where relegation
for a second successive season it looking possible
The full story has been well documented in many sport web
sites so go and look in them as its too depressing to repeat
it here.
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