Dougie Freedman has left Crystal Palace after nearly eight years at the club.placeholder image
Dougie Freedman has left Crystal Palace after nearly eight years at the club. | Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Crystal Palace are starting to fall apart at the seams, and things are only going to get worse.
Crystal Palace haven’t quite become a laughing stock in the transfer market, but the writing is on the wall for those behind the scenes at Selhurst Park.
Under Dougie Freedman, the Eagles polished rough diamonds like Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze into the brightest stars whilst also giving a platform for domestic talent like Marc Guehi and Adam Wharton to shine. Events in the transfer window that has just closed suggests that, without the impressive Scot pulling the strings, Palace have become rudderless.
Crystal Palace rudderless after shambolic transfer window
Palace signed Brennan Johnson for £35m earlier in the window, a deal that instantly raised eyebrows. A club record fee has been paid for a player who has delivered flashes of what he is capable of, but with no real consistency.
Tottenham didn’t put up much of a fight or panic to replace the Wales international either which tells a story in itself. A good player? Yes. But not one with the sort of profile that Eze or Olise had when they arrived at the club. For the money involved, Johnson shouldn’t still be a project player, he should be the real deal and the first name on the team sheet.
If the fee paid for Johnson raised eyebrows, Palace outdid themselves by going one better and by paying £48m for Jorgen Strand Larsen. Dropped by Wolves due to his poor form – one league goal all season – the club’s transfer record was smashed to sign a player who isn’t getting a game for a team below Palace in the league and who are destined for the Championship.
As with Johnson, this sort of fee should only be getting paid for a player who instantly improves the starting XI. Injured or not Jean-Philippe Mateta is still a better player.
Palace pull the plug on last-minute McNeil deal
Most damning though, was how Palace treated Everton winger Dwight McNeil. Signing him in the first place was questionable, as was the £20m reported fee, but this doesn’t mean that it is ok to agree personal terms, agree terms with Everton and pass a medical only to pull the plug without any word or warning at the last minute. This isn’t how a serious or well run football club operates.
McNeil’s girlfriend, Megan Sharpley, posted a damning update on her Instagram account, which is now private, which included some scathing criticism of how Palace conducted themselves: "To have 4 and a half years of your life promised to you, travelling, medicals, agreements made... promises made, to have prepared to move your entire life, our life's 100 of miles away in the space of a few hours.
"For it to be torn away from you at the last second, with absolutely no explanation. Going from everything - to radio silence, no phone call, no communication and be left, broken-hearted with nothing but confusion, has hurt more than I can say. I sit with you, knowing in my heart and deep down into my soul that you will bounce back from this.
"I am your biggest supporter, and I know you will overcome this with a fire in your belly and a motivation that no one can stop. I have already seen it tonight, even whilst you're facing the lowest point of your career."
He might have got his move eventually, but Palace have done this before to one of their own in Marc Guehi. One way or another, they need to get their house in order because, if they don’t, with no Oliver Glasner and the potential loss of Mateta and Wharton too, the club will return to looking over their shoulder, rather than up the table.
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