Ahead of the pre-season trip to South Africa, Steve Parish is in upbeat mood.
The Eagles chairman, speaking to the official Crystal Palace website, is even sounding a note of optimism about an opening day clash with Arsenal at Selhurst Park – saying that although he “used to be in the school of thought” that such tough games are best “buried in midseason when it can’t do much harm,” but now inviting the challenge with glee – “bring it on. Come on, let’s do it!”
He has every reason to be excited at the moment. He can’t help but contrast this summer’s preparations with how it was when he bought the club in 2010. That year, he said, “we played Exeter and someone else down there like Plymouth in pre-season” and “paid all our own travel and accommodation. We even got rained out one year down there and we had to come back and go to Spain.” (In fact, that “someone else down there” in July 2010 was non-league Dorchester Town, with whom Palace drew 3-3 having been 2-0 down.)
It’s quite a change of scenery to go from the south-west to South Africa. “It’s a beautiful country, it’s a beautiful hotel – all paid for.” And big crowds are anticipated at the Cape Town Stadium, which was built for the 2010 World Cup – Parish understands that organisers of the two-day Cape Town Cup are “expecting upwards of 40,000 people in the stadium to see the back-to-back games. It’s brilliant. We’re really looking forward to that.”
Both Palace and Portuguese side Sporting are playing local teams in those back-to-back games, with Palace facing Supersport United and Sporting Lisbon facing Ajax Cape Town. The winners of these games meet each other two days later, with penalties after 90 minutes if necessary.
Parish ended with a note to the fans to “keep on doing what you do” – adding that “it’s a tough league and we’ve got to keep grounded” and that raising expectations “doesn’t mean booing and hissing when we’re not playing like Barcelona and winning 6-0 every week,” but that “the only way is up for us in this league.”
He then immediately noted “that’s fantastic for a club who were in administration five years ago.” It’s a reminder of just how far the Eagles have flown in that time.
