Crystal Palace - 5 Year Plan

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deakz

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Hello Everyone... I have over the last few years I have looked with great intrigue over other peoples stories & really enjoyed a few of them - So now I want to start my own and believe Crystal Palace would be a great team to do it with.


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We certainly have the quality to stay in the Premier League and with £10m to spend with a decent wage budget I should be able to bring in 1 or 2 players to improve the squad.

My 5 Year Plan;

2014-2015 / Avoid Relegation
2015-2016 / Top 10 Finish
2016-2017 / Europa League Qualification + Domestic Trophy
2017-2018 / Champions League Qualification
2019-2020 / Champions League Qualification + Domestic trophy

Hopefully along the way we can make some improvements to the Stadium + Training Facilities.

I will be doing an overview of the squad & will update once I have identified some Transfer Targets.

Hope you enjoy. ​
 
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TRANSFERS IN;

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Lucas Romero £7m
Everyone knows Lucas Romero - I am stunned that I was able to get him before anyone else came in for him. He insisted in having a buy out clause for Champions League teams, but with that set at £37.5m I will most certainly be looking at keeping him for 2-3 seasons at least.


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Paul McShane £2m
I wanted to sign a mentally strong CB who could offer good competition for places. McShane is mentally as strong as anyone in the Premier League and that will certainly come in handy with a long season coming up.


TRANSFERS OUT;

Adrian Mariappa - Leicester City £3m
With McShane coming in I no longer had use for Mariappa and was delighted to get £3m back for him.


With the Lucas Romero transfer eating the majority of my budget I can't see me doing too much more. I am trying to get rid of some dead wood (Bannan + Thomas) as they are not going to be in my PL squad this season.

If a Left Back comes along who can be signed for £2m - £4m then I might have a look at then otherwise I am concentrating now finishing Pre-Season & a tough season opener against Manchester United.




​
 
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Pre-Season was a bit up & down, I would certainly of expected some stronger results.

The start of the season is going to be really tricky, with some really difficult games against Man Utd & Liverpool.



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Here is the shape that i'll be looking to implement over the season. Looking to the front 3 to give opposition something to think about with counter attacking pace and flair.


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Dwight Gayle has asked to be able to leave if Hull City make a bid as they are playing in Europe. This is frustrating as I am looking to make him my main striker for this season. I have said he can leave fearing that I would upset the squad by saying no, however only if a good offer is made. I have set his asking price to £15m - fingers crossed I can hold on to him until the end of the window!!
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Last edited:
Cant see anyone offering £15m for gayle.
Good luck with the season and good signing in romero.
 
Managed to get to end of the window without anyone bidding - since then Gayle has stated he's happy to stay. Happy days all round!!
 
I would say good luck but you are playing as Crystal Palace so i hope you fail lol but on the flipside a good signing in Romero and McShane is well known by Crystal Palace for his time there a couple years ago but also for being the guy that helped us beat the scum in Palace's own ground 1-0 :)
 
Season kicks off with 3 defeats!!!

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It's never good to lose games - however performances were not too bad in any of them & the team are getting more & more used to their new shape.

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Man Utd 2 - 0 Crystal Palace
We were expecting the worst - but we were very organised & hard to break down. It took a controversial penalty to give the home side the lead. We tried pushing forward to get an unlikely equalizer but then Smalling headed a second from a free kick.


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Crystal Palace 2 - 3 Liverpool
Again, another tough game and one that we were not expecting to take much from. Liverpool were strong but we shown that we are a decent side and did not make it easy for them. Bolasie was a constant threat cutting in from the left win all game which was particularly pleasing


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Crystal Palace 6 - 0 Milwall
A massive victory over a massive rival - I brought some fringe players into the first team to keep match fitness up throughout the squad. Chamakh got injured in the first half, Zaha came on to score 2 goals and get 2 assists. His pace tore Milwall to pieces. Great victory to increase morale.

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Everton 2 - 1 Crystal Palace
After a big win in the League Cup I was hoping to be able to get something from this game. Everton looked the better team in honesty, but it was a shame to lose as a result of a late penalty.

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Crystal Palace 3 - 0 Sunderland
Going in to this game after 3 tough defeats in the Premiership really hoping to get a win. Gayle got 2 goals in the first half looking very sharp in front of goal indeed. Sunderland went down to 10 men and it was just a case of seeing the game out. Lucas Romero got his first goal for the club to round off a great victory. We will travel to Newcastle in good spirits.

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After previously stating he wanted to join Hull City I was delighted when top goal scorer Gayle stated he was happy to stay.

​
 
Not the best of starts, Jon Williams is someone i think would be good to slip in somehow as well
 
SamPeters said:
Not the best of starts, Jon Williams is someone i think would be good to slip in somehow as well
Click to expand...

Yeah - Jedinak has been injured for the next couple of weeks so I am going to use Romero as a holding midfielder & pop Williams in as a playmaker.

Have got some more tough games coming up too - good to get them out the way I suppose!

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Newcastle 1-1 Crystal Palace
After a confidence building 3-0 win against Sunderland we didn't want to fall to a defeat against Newcastle a week later. However decent chances were few & far between for Palace as Newcastle took the lead. It was a dramatic late equalizer by Zaha that ensured Palace took a point with them on the long trip home.

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Leyton Orient 3-2 Crystal Palace
The league cup wasn't a priority & it's just as well. Leyton Orient scored 2 of their goals from long throws and we didn't have it in us to put them under real pressure. Very unhappy that 2 key players were injured in the same game.


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Injury problems hit Palace

Lucas Romero is out for 3-4 months
Joe Ledley is out for 4 weeks

They would both be in my best starting 11, with the window shut this is going to make it increasingly tricky over the winter months and leave us weak in the centre of midfield.

We may be looking at changing the formation to get the best out of the team so that we don't slip into the relegation zone.

Upcoming PL Fixtures;

Chelsea (Home)
QPR (Away)
Arsenal (Home)
Tottenham (Away)

The game against QPR is a must win - with the injuries you'd have to be realistic and say any points from the other 3 games is a bonus.

Will update after these 4 games are completed.






​
 
Ouch with the injuries mate, good draw against Newcastle but ouch against Leyton Orient but well done to Dean *** for putting one past ya! haha
 
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I predicted another very difficult 4 games. The squad was down to the bare bones with injuries to Bolasie, Chamakh, Dann & McShane. We already had Lucas Romero out until the new year, however Joe Ledley has made his recovery and is back in the first team.

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Crystal Palace 0-6 Chelsea
It was always going to be tricky, but it is never nice to be on the receiving end of such a heavy defeat. Hangeland in particular was very poor in defence.

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QPR 1-1 Crystal Palace
It was important not to let the Chelsea result effect us too much - with massive injury problems though we will take a point which might prove invaluable come the end of the season.

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Crystal Palace 0-3 Arsenal
We were better than we were against Chelsea, but Podolski was clinical when he had his chances. His pace gave us massive problems particularly in the second half. Joe Ledley made his comeback from 4 weeks out.

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Tottenham 2-0 Crystal Palace
Another bad defeat. With Bolasie out injured Puncheon came in but was wasteful in possession. We had chances to equalize but we were not clinical enough.


*League Table*
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We have had a really tough start to the season. We have lost all our games against the top clubs and morale is low. I hate to say it - but I have NEVER been so effected by injuries to key players before. Romero, Ledley, Bolasie, Chamakh, McShane, Ward, Dann & Hangeland have all had spells out - however with the majority back fit it is now a case of not letting our bad form worry us too much. It's still early enough in the season for us to ensure we don't get stuck in a relegation dog fight and will be looking forward to a run of easier fixtures where we can demonstrate our attacking flair.

November Fixtures;

Aston Villa (Home)
West Brom (Away)
Leicester (Home)
Swansea (Away)




​
 
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Crystal Palace 1-1 Aston Villa
After losing the lead so quickly we managed to stay in the game despite alot of early pressure from Villa. Gayle was on target to give us the equalizer but we were not able to find a winner.

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West Brom 2-3 Crystal Palace
It looked like we were down & out as Berahino put West Brom 2-0 up just before half time and I was ready to kick off at half time for a lackluster performance. Frazier Campbell came off injured and on came Jason Puncheon in the 44th minute putting Zaha up top with Bolasie & Puncheon as Inside forward cutting in from the wing. We made it 2-2 in first half stoppage time & then man of the match Bolasie gave us the winner in the second half.

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Crystal Palace 0-1 Leicester City
I was really expecting us to get a win here against a relegation rival after a big win last week. We dominated the game but we didn't have enough quality in the final third.

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Swansea 3-1 Crystal Palace
Another disappointing result, it was frustrating to see lots of chances go off target. Bolasie & McShane were bad - and the fans are starting to question the signing of McShane.

We really are now going to see what this Palace team is made of. We were hoping to get some decent points from these games and instead are still struggling to find the back of the net. We are going into a tough December needing to pick up 3/4 victories.

*League Table*
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December Fixtures;
Stoke (Home)
Southampton (Away)
West Ham (Home)
Man City (Home)
Burnley (Home)
Hull (Away)

​
 
xJamieWilliams said:
Maybe tweak the tactic? Unlucky so far mate!
Click to expand...

Thanks - Yeah that's something I might have a look at. I might try a slightly more conservative 4-4-1-1.

What kind of formation do you think suits Palace?
 
deakz said:
Thanks - Yeah that's something I might have a look at. I might try a slightly more conservative 4-4-1-1.

What kind of formation do you think suits Palace?
Click to expand...

It's a tough one really, I can imagine if you brought in a decent left winger a 433 could actually work, or is Bolasie left on this? You have your man in the middle in Chamakh and with two pacey wingers either side it could actually prove to be decent!
 
Erik Sviatachenko check spelling, he is from Denmark and is a CB, for like 2.5 mill buy out clause if you can get any funds id recommend him solid defender and can make a profit later on
 
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Crystal Palace 0-2 Stoke
This was one of the games I was looking to win this month - very disappointed but Stoke were better on the day. Peter Crouch came on with half an hour to go and caused us lots of problems.

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Southampton 0-0 Crystal Palace
I'd of taken a point going into this game, Southampton are a decent side and our form has been dismal. We had the better chances and perhaps should have got a winner. Bolasie was a constant threat.

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Crystal Palace 1-1 West Ham
Dwight Gayle scored a free kick in the first minute and we should of converted a few chances to wrap the game up early on. West Ham were always going to be a threat from set plays and Winston Reid scored a header in the second half to tie the game. Lucas Romero made his comeback from a long injury from the bench.

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Crystal Palace 2-0 Man City
What a result... An early goal from Bolasie spooked City who never really got into the game. Zaha added to their misery in the second half and we looked like adding a third. Lucas Romero came on from the bench making his recovery and looking like coming back to the starting lineup just as we are hitting decent form.

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Crystal Palace 2-2 Burnley
With Burnley in 19th I was really hoping to carry on from the win against City. It looked like we would as we went 2-0 up as Gayle beat the offside trap to show his deadly finishing but Burnley were up for it and came back very strong. We had the chances to win but were wasteful. I am thinking that a proven goal scorer is needed due to a long term injury to Chamakh.

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Hull City 1-4 Crystal Palace
Hull had just sacked Steve Bruce as they were rooted to the bottom of the League and I was hoping to make the most of them being in turmoil. We looked a threat throughout the entire game and the team were delighted that new signing Paul McShane scored his first goal for the club against his old one after some bad form.

League Table
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January Fixtures;
Man Utd (Home)
Bournemouth (Away) FA Cup 3rd Round
Liverpool (Away)
Everton (Home)
Sunderland (Away)
Newcastle (Home)

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The January Transfer window is about to open. I am going to be looking to get rid of Frazier Campbell for as much as possible due to him being very similar to Gayle who I have preferred this season. Chamakh is out with a slipped disc so I will being looking for a Target Man or a False 9 to add a new dimension to our play. I may also look at the loan market for a Left Back or a Winger to add competition for places.
£4m transfer budget remaining
£50,000 wage budget remaining

It will be interesting to see if we can continue Decembers form - ultimately though we are looking to ensure our Premiership status remains intact for next year.

​
 
StevenM92 said:
Erik Sviatachenko check spelling, he is from Denmark and is a CB, for like 2.5 mill buy out clause if you can get any funds id recommend him solid defender and can make a profit later on
Click to expand...

He looks brilliant - I have scouted him to see what his release clause is. I will let you know if I sign him.
 
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