After nearly two months without football, Crystal Palace begin their pre-season campaign this evening with a match against FC Luzern in the Uhrencup.
While these early fixtures are mainly about building up fitness and avoiding injury ahead of a gruelling Premier League campaign, pre-season can often present youngsters and fringe players with the opportunity to impress the coaching staff.
Before his remarkable breakthrough into the Palace first team, Aaron Wan-Bissaka had made the pre-season squad for the 2017/18 Asia Cup under Frank De Boer.
While it remains to be seen if any of the current crop of young talent will be able to emulate Wan-Bissaka’s rise to prominence, it is a promising sign that so many of them have been offered a chance to impress in Switzerland, with seven of the 24 players in the travelling party coming from the Crystal Palace development squad.
With the Eagles yet to sign an outfield player this transfer window, these youngsters will no doubt be looking to convince Roy Hodgson that they have what it takes to make the step up and play a role in the upcoming season.
As Crystal Palace prepare to kick off their pre-season campaign, we’ve decided to take a look at the seven youngsters to have made the first team squad for the tour of Switzerland.
