As much as I despise how Tony Pulis left the club I have to hold my hands up and thank him for what he did in the transfer market for this club. Without a shadow of doubt the club wouldn’t have stayed up last year without the signings made in the January window. I think the most pivotal deal that the club managed to clinch was Scott Dann, from the off we have seen him put consistently excellent performances in week on week.
We have all seen first hand the ability of Scott Dann and that was again evident on Saturday when he had one of the in form Premier League strikers in his back pocket, every time Charlie Austin picked up the ball Dann was on him like a rash. Granted QPR were abysmal and the service to Austin was limited but anything asked of Scott Dann was answered with composure and more. Since the arrival of Pardew the Liverpudlian has only got better and better, Pards is a manager who demands the ball to be ‘put at risk’ and encourages the defenders to play out from the back and that suits him down to the ground.
There were a few murmurs and rumors a few years back when Dann was at Birmingham that he could set to be moving to Chelsea but due to a long term injury it came to nothing. Based on how he has performed I can’t see why some of the bigger teams haven’t come in for him, not that I am complaining as he is the first name on my team sheet. When you see sides like Manchester United spend shedloads on the likes of Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo it just makes no sense why they don’t spend half the money on a better player like Dann, people will think say that that is a bold statement but based on the last 18 months of Premier League appearances it is a fact that Scott Dann has out performed them nearly every single week.
Dann is most certainly a traditional hard hitting centre half but his footballing ability is vastly underplayed and because of his style he is branded with an unfair stigma that he isn’t a good footballer and this is his level. His ability seems to go unnoticed and even Alan Pardew picked up on that, early on into his rein he branded Dann as “the biggest surprise” – Pardew spoke about how he wasn’t aware of the ability and presence that Scott possesses. Even Joe Ledley said that he thought Dann was the best “footballer” in the team, from the outside most football fans and pundits would be surprised but I don’t think any Palace fan would be surprised to hear that.
Since the arrival of Dann we have seen Damien Delaney’s Premier League form improve vastly and I think that is down to the concentration and leadership of Dann, he could make most of his centre back partners look quality.
The England scouts were sent out to watch Dann against Aston Villa and in that game he made his first and only mistake wearing a Palace shirt! I just hope they will have judged him based on every other game for us, all they would need to do is watch the last 5 or 6 games and that form will prove he should start for England. Unfortunately the big player/club bias won’t change and whilst he is playing for us it is unlikely he will make the international stage but Roy Hodgson can’t honestly tell me the form of Gary Cahill and Phill Jagielka has been better than Dann’s this year.
The reality is we have to kind of hope the ability and form of Scotty goes unnoticed because if it was noticed I can’t see him pulling on the red and blue strip for much longer! So if anyone asks, Scott Dann is rubbish and should stay at Palace until he retires.
