On the afternoon of Julian Speroni’s testimonial match, let’s take a second to think of all the magical moments, dedication and passion that our number one has given to us over the past 11 years.
Tonight we welcome Speroni’s first club Dundee United to Selhurst Park to help celebrate not only the longevity that the Argentinian legend has given us, but for the club and fans to say a big thank you for helping Palace through relegation, near administration, promotion battles and not to mention sticking around for 11 different managers. Speroni earned his respect at previous club Dundee, winning Player of the Year and appearing in their hall of fame; over 1500 fans will be making their way from Scotland this evening to join us in the celebration.
Tonight’s Speroni party will welcome not only the Palace current side and Jules’ team mates for the first half, we will even have the pleasure to see Sir Pardew feature on the pitch alongside former teammates such as John Salako and Danny Butterfield.
So where did it all begin…. Ian Dowie poached our longhaired goalie from Dundee in 2004 for a bargain buy of £500,000. His debut game against Everton was a disappointment , seeing him give away a penalty on his first chance to impress was always going to hurt. He didn’t win the Palace fans hearts immediately, seeing Speroni spend nearly three years on the bench with only 15 appearances in that time, after that initial teaser under the posts at Selhurst. In this time Jules showed his patience as an understudy to Gabor Kiraly, he grew and learned more and more on the training ground and when he had his chance to step back up and put back on his gloves, we all never looked back….since that season and 8 years later Jules has started all but 10 of Palace’s 352 league games.
Every Palace fan will have their own personal memory of Speroni and watching some of his tremendous saves, but for Jules his 2 highlights in his career were his save from Ashley Barnes in the play off semi final against Brighton and two huge game changing saves from Hazard against Chelsea last season ensuring an incredible 1-0 victory that will go down in fans history of one of the best atmospheres at Selhurst.
Speroni has been awarded Player of the Year for a record 4 times at Palace in his career, becoming the first team member to win this acolade for three consecutive years. He has certainly earned his testimonial match and celebration, even though we could be lucky enough to see another season, after recently signing a one year contract extension with the club last week. I personally cannot wait to honour our number 1 this evening behind his goal in the Homesdale and will be singing proudly all night; Ju Ju Ju Julian Speroni.
