Daniel Storey pays a visit to Selhurst Park, where deep pride meets bitter resentment
The supposed ferocity of El CASico, a mutual mistrust and distaste of two clubs and fanbases that only recently enjoyed an amicable relationship, never quite materialised. Nottingham Forest’s team bus was ringed by police ahead of the clash with Crystal Palace and there were chants about the club’s owner Evangelos Marinakis from both sets of supporters. There were extra police deployed from Nottingham and London. But largely it all felt entirely unnecessary.
The one exception, a banner raised in Selhurst Park’s Holmesdale End that depicted Marinakis holding a gun to the head of Morgan Gibbs-White, has provoked a Football Association investigation and was probably ill-advised. But when a cartoon on white, billowing canvas is the height of the escalation, we can conclude that this was more pantomime than serious conflict.
Palace are a club currently fuelled by deep, righteous resentment. They may have fallen foul of the technicality of Uefa’s rules (and the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s interpretation of them), but on common sense and fairness grounds their demotion from the Europa League appears highly unfair. Loopholes may have been signposted, but to suffer such a punishment through a failure to foresee unexpected glory strikes as a status quo heavily weighted in favour of those who do expect it.
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Crystal Palace fans display banner which reads " Marinakis is Not involved in blackmail, match fixing, drug, trafficking, or corruption" with an images of Evangelos Marinakis & Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest at Selhurst Park on August 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)
The FA is investigating Palace fans’ banner mocking Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis (Photo: Getty)
The public spat between the two sets of supporters was provoked by both Forest’s perceived requests for Palace’s case to be investigated (or a letter asking for clarification, depending upon which club you believe) and chairman Steve Parish claiming in an interview with Gary Lineker that he had been told Palace would have no case to answer were it not for Forest’s own ambition.
It is worth pointing out that Uefa (and CAS) made the same decision on Drogheda United, even though no Irish club could replace them in European competition, rather undermining Parish’s line. But the point is this: there is a new siege mentality at Selhurst Park and it is easy to understand why they feel like the fall guys of the deeper-rooted issues of multi-club ownership when there are far, far more egregious examples of their complications than Palace.
It is not just about Uefa and John Textor, as unpopular as they remain. The theme of this summer has been established elite clubs picking off the talent of the overachieving rest and Palace have suffered too. Eberechi Eze was the hero and the best player; he now belongs to Arsenal. Marc Guehi’s contract situation makes his own exit more likely. Those two departures would leave gaping holes – ability and personality.
Last season, the most monumental in Palace’s history, opened supporters’ eyes to new possibilities. Instead, this summer has conspired to immediately lower the club’s natural ceiling and left them wondering what the point is at all. Rather than change Palace’s position in English football’s natural order, the last three months have reinforced it.
The great problem for Palace is the opportunity cost here. Winning a trophy is always a wonderful, joyous thing, but it does tend to (understandably) provoke further ambition from supporters, players and managers and the club should feel pressure to match that. Put simply: if you aren’t going to kick on after winning your first major domestic honour, how long should we expect to wait before the next one?
Oliver Glasner has expressed his unhappiness at the club’s summer transfer window (Photo: Getty)
Sunday afternoon arrived laden with symbolism and a new bitter rivalry, but it was also the first game without Eze. For a month now, Oliver Glasner has publicly bemoaned the lack of depth and competition within a squad that may well play more than 50 competitive matches this season.
“I am worried about Crystal Palace if we are losing players and we don’t get the right ones in,” Glasner said before Sunday’s game. “It is my duty as manager to tell the owners what we have to do to be competitive and stay on our pathway.”
Two days earlier, Palace’s manager had joked about playing in central defence himself if Guehi was sold, shortly after Parish had intimated that, unless Guehi signed a new contract, it would be hard to turn down a high-value offer. It hardly suggested a joined-up approach at a club that relies upon one.
One look at the bench on Sunday vindicated Glasner’s point: two goalkeepers, two inexperienced academy graduates and two new signings who will both be backups and were both signed on the cheap. The contrast with Forest’s own bench options did not go unnoticed: four attacking summer signings and the club captain.
Here is where the priorities of Palace supporters shift a little. For all the anger at their perceived mistreatment by external parties, the spotlight now turns upon their own club and those responsible for ensuring that overachievement is not a single-season dream. If it is tempting to blame transfer delays upon the uncertainty of European competition, Glasner has dismissed that as a viable excuse.
It is also true that the sale of shares by Textor (itself a cause for celebration given his track record) to Woody Johnson may have delayed action. But then Johnson’s purchase was completed on 24 July; that does not explain the lack of transfer market proactivity since.
There should be money to spend. Palace have made around £60m net profit on transfer fees since the start of last season, selling Michael Olise, Joachim Anderson and Eze. Two of the most expensive arrivals last season (Eddie Nketiah and Chadi Riad) haven’t worked out and financial limits (plus Parish’s keenness to spend unsustainable) mean that the pot is not limitless, but that should have persuaded Palace to be efficient and smart this summer, not virtually inactive.
Eberechi Eze was sold to Arsenal for a guaranteed fee of £60m plus £7.5m in add-ons (Photo: Getty)
Glasner is at the epicentre of this storm because he is the best manager Palace have ever had and because his contract expires at the end of this season. The Austrian is happy to speak in glowing terms about the togetherness and community ethos that has got under his skin since joining the club – the connection is not merely a party line. But Glasner will also be one of the most in-demand coaches in Europe and it would be foolish for Palace not to provide him with every tool they can if he is to stay.
This is all so impossible for supporters to process because they understand their own role. The notion that a fanbase can drag a club on is usually overestimated, but at Wembley in May, with that wall of noise, it appeared inarguable. Criticising anyone so soon afterwards is unpleasant to countenance, as if doing so would be to close the chapter on the greatest day. Everybody just wants what is best for their club.
Sunday was a step forward, not back. Despite playing on Thursday evening, Palace were better than Forest in the first half and merited their point. After the game, Glasner spoke in a less accusatory or defeated tone of trusting his club to find solutions. Frustration is understandable but mutiny helps nobody.
There are seven days left to bolster this squad and leave a brilliant coach confident that he is not being asked to repeat a breathtaking feat in more difficult circumstances. There are seven days to try to sign Conor Gallagher, an Eze replacement and/or cover in other options and a week is a long time in a transfer window. There is a second leg in Norway to negotiate. There is a club captain to keep. Nobody is shying away from the magnitude.
Before kick-off on Sunday, as the teams stood in the tunnel, the stadium announcer invited all present to welcome onto the pitch the current FA Cup and Community Shield champions. Even now, despite seeing that Eze goal a hundred times or more, it still catches you off-guard. Wembley felt like magic being sprinkled over a club that had waited forever for their turn; magic is hard to get used to.
Your next read
On the pitch, they achieved the unthinkable. Off the pitch, how the structure maximises the club’s potential and spending power is less obvious. Overachievement is difficult to process for supporters of clubs outside the established elite, but it can be just as hard for the clubs themselves.
It all makes Palace perhaps the most fascinating club in the Premier League right now. Others have grand expansion projects or outright disillusionment at the direction of travel. At Selhurst, it used to be hard to put your finger on anything at all because everything seemed to stay the same: stasis by design. Now it is hard to put your finger on anything at all because anything could happen, including a return to that stasis.
They have the best manager in their history. They have enjoyed the best year in their history. Yet this is a place where total joy meets resentment and where a deep pride in their achievements meets a siege mentality because of what happened next. It hardly feels hyperbolic to conclude that the next week may well be instructive for Palace’s next age.