Where Eagles dare - and care
Why English football needs Palace values
There is a food chain in football, and Eberechi Eze’s ascent from Crystal Palace to Arsenal is understandable, just as he was always going to rise from QPR. Palace will be frustrated at losing Eze but know his reasons, returning to his boyhood club, title campaign, Champions League football etc. To protect the deal, Eze was sensibly withdrawn from Palace’s Conference League play-off last night. They still beat Fredrikstad, albeit narrowly, but the first leg at Selhurst Park was followed by some worrying, divergent comments from Steve Parish, the man balancing the books, and Oliver Glasner, the man balancing the team.
Parish, Palace’s chairman, again signalled that Marc Guehi could leave (probably for Liverpool) because Palace can’t afford to let him go for free at the end of his contract next year. Talking to local reporters, head coach Glasner responded, “I just know if Marc leaves and is not avaliable for Fredrikstad (away) then we will have big trouble. If Marc leaves, maybe I will put on my boots because I was a centre-back.” Glasner has a natural way of leavening serious points with a tweak of humour.
Other clubs in the food chain experience this age-old process, of course. Brentford and Bournemouth, for example. Like Palace, they resume recruiting well, and the whole process begins again. Buy cheapish, develop, win some games, sell high. Bournemouth lost three of their five best players this summer.
But there has to be some sympathy for Glasner and Palace. He keeps organising his team expertly and keeps winning big games, FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa, the final against Manchester City and Community Shield against Liverpool. And that’s just his Wembley record in 2025. But it’s a rollercaster. Palace keep having these highs followed by troughs of losing players or losing battles with Uefa. Palace were relegated from the Europa League because of breaching multi-club ownership rules by missing a deadline.
So here are five reasons why the game needs Palace…
1.England need Palace. No club had more players than Palace’s four in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man Euro 2024 squad. Palace give players a platform and make good players better. Eze developed at Palace from a £19.5m signing (and huge respect to the work of Chris Ramsey and his coaches at QPR) to a £67.5m player in five years. He scored 40 times in 169 games, including deciding the Cup final, because of good coaching as well as his own inner drive.