The last 4 years have been a whirlwind of change – and above all else, real progression, from a bleak place where the very existence of the club was in genuine doubt. Remaining a Premier League club for the first time ever was huge for us, it changes the club forever.
More than that, promotion when we got it was vital. The Championship is awash with clubs with parachute payments and those who push “Financial Fair Play” to, and beyond, it’s limits to the point where it is almost a lottery as to who goes up or down.
So why is it many a fan now will tell you about all the times they stood with 200 others “Up at Barnsley on a cold Tuesday night?” First of all it’s worth mentioning I have heard that said by far more people than those that attended the last Tuesday trip to Barnsley, but aside from that it’s because the fans were a lot more secure about our identity at that time. Not only did you look around a half empty ground and recognise most faces, but most accepted the style and skill level of the football they watched as inevitable.
Sure there were those that wanted more ambition or those that stayed away, but it was fun right?
Well it kind of was anyway.
What is interesting to me, and what presents the dichotomy, is that you can hear those very same people talk now about their frustration at the club. A perceived lack of spending, lack of ambition, not beating Chelsea, inconsistency. These fans (and I include myself as one of them at times) clearly demonstrate in their behaviour that they are far from happy to drop back to the league below.
Or is it just that football fans can’t take losing?
Either way, the problem you have at Premier League level is clear. It is not a level playing field. Top level football rarely is, but the sums are breathtaking. A top level side like Chelsea spend more on one player’s transfer fee and wages than Palace will spend on a squad. The differences in those players, when you face a team of them, are such that even a talented and committed squad like Palace can lose a game without making a mistake. Not that we get through many games without making a mistake you understand.
So what is the answer? The answer is investment. Money. Everyone knows it. The money comes from owners, but is fuelled by TV and other media. It’s the TV and media in general that are then viewed as the bad guy – but they’re a bad guy you can’t do without unless you scrap football and start again.
So a responsible owner has to play the game – deal with the money men, put on a show – market the “business” to “customers” and generate hype.
You do all that just to stay afloat, just to cling on to the whole thing that makes the sport so compelling in the first place – the competitiveness. Without it there is no sport – and that’s really where fans are losing their love of the game. It manifests itself in the minutia of who a team signs, how much they pay them and so on – but what it boils down to is that it’s no fun playing a game you can’t win.
So you do what you have to do to compete – to give meaning to the 90 minutes each week. The trouble is in doing so you have to make concessions that fans might not like – what of tradition? What is “sacred” or where do you draw the line?
An interesting case study is the recent Palace badge change – remember that? It’s funny to see a stadium full of everyone proudly displaying the (vastly improved) emblem when I think back to the furore over when the change was proposed. The board were accused of disrespecting a tradition in favour of a marketing move. Funnily enough you won’t find many who don’t now see that it needed a change.
More than that, a basic Palace history lesson can take you through at least half a dozen versions of the Palace crest – and a whole period where we changed the club nickname and colours. So what is sacred?
Is it the stadium? – we call it character. the away support have an altogether less diplomatic name. Talk of major change at Selhurst, or a move to Crystal Palace was also met with cynicism and concern – but that too is needed in order to progress. So you can’t really draw a line, it moves with you.
I guess what I am saying is that Crystal Palace FC has gone through a period of defining history. An injection of finance and playing success that is fuelling a new journey. Either you’re on board or you’re not.
Quite simply a club’s identity lies in the hands of its supporters. Carrying on as we are, we better hope Barnsley get a couple of miraculous promotions and join us in the Premier League as seemingly that’s the only thing that will placate all.
I think we need to accept change as inevitable – and change is not always bad. Moving with the times in football is hard enough without being a club like ours, which has suffered from years of under investment in most areas through a basic lack of wealth and a series of poor decisions prior to the current ownership. Who knows what the next year will bring, but the huge strides made are just the beginning of something – something that might mean letting go of those cherished, insanely cold, memories of Oakwell.
But it’s OK. We still have Burnley.
