Premier League Preview: Crystal Palace | OneFootball

Few teams have had a summer as frustrating as Crystal Palace. After the unbridled joy of winning their first major trophy in the club’s history came the crushing UEFA ruling that dumped them unceremoniously out of the Europa League and down to Conference League. The majority shareholder “guilty” of violating multi-club ownership regulations (John Textor) no longer owns those shares, but the club will have to wait until August 11 to find out if they will win their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Key Transfers

All this uncertainty cast a pall over the transfer window. As of publication, Palace have only made two signings: Argentinian goalkeeper Walter Benítez from PSV (free), and Croatian left-back Borna Sosa from Ajax ($4M). Sosa is an intriguing prospect. At 27 years, he’s hardly performed up to his potential, never really fitting in with Ajax and spending his last injury-prone season on loan with Torino in Serie A. Would it be too much to hope he becomes the next Daniel Muñoz? An under-the-radar game changer? Not with the knocks they’ve already taken.

Palace have been busy on the outward bound side of business. Longtime stalwarts Joel Ward and Jefferey Schlupp are gone, along with a half-dozen youth players on loan or on free transfers. Despite continued whispers about star player Eberechi Eze departing to any one of ten different teams, he continues to suit up in the blue and red. Same deal applies to Marc Guéhi, though he’s a more likely figure to be released if someone can meet the club’s price.

Season Outlook

The club’s stillness during the transfer window begs the question: is the squad deep enough to handle any sort of European competition? Let alone Europa? We’ll have to see. It’s a packed dance card for Palace in August. They start battling Liverpool for the Community Shield. Unlike the final league fixture last May, Liverpool will not be in coasting mode and have added some serious firepower to their arsenal. Their first three league ties are against Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. Between the last two they have home and away fixtures against either Loser Fredrickstad OR Midtjylland (they are competing in a playoff round). Aside from the Shield and PL games, all of this might change.

Surely the club will not wait until their ninth game to lodge a win (not with Sunderland on the docket).

Key Players

Other Bits

Keep an eye on manager Oliver Glasner. There’s no doubt of his quality; what he did with Palace last year was extraordinary. But he’s not been shy at expressing his disappointment with the transfer window dealings. If Palace get off to a strong start, expect many clubs to come sniffing around him.

Palace still have yet to replace Sporting Director Dougie Freedman, widely considered to be the architect of Palace’s current success, who took off to Al-Diriyah for some of that sweet Saudi money in March. This is a gaping hole in their backroom.

Lastly, now that Textor is gone, and all the fracas and drama that went with his stunted efforts to wrest control from chairman Steve Parish, we’ll have to see what role new shareholder Woody Johnson will play.