Strange Times at Selhurst Park

After winning the FA Cup last season, no other club matched the vibes at Selhurst Park. With manager Oliver Glasner looking like the best hire in recent memory, nothing seemed out of reach.

A rather weird summer continues to impact the team as all the vibes are gone.

Looking at where they currently sit, Palace aren’t having the worst season among their peers. Still hovering around the midtable, it’s everything else that’s gone wrong.

Unless some sort of contract extension materializes in the coming weeks, Glasner’s time with Palace is surely over. His potential departure follows a number of other key players who have left in disappointing ways. Replacements for all those who continue to depart underwhelm as well.

All this uncertainty stems from a summer where the team chose to sit on its hands. Once they lost Eberechi Eze, Palace spent the rest of the summer fending off bids for other key players. Most of this hesitation came from the manager, with the club seeming to be more open to making moves, creating a rift.

As the club hit rough patches, more rifts emerged, draining any and all of the good vibes from last season.

Perhaps the worst part for Palace fans lies in the club not having a disaster season, unlike Tottenham.

Beating Pep and City at Wembley for the club’s first-ever FA Cup should have ensured that this new era of Palace football lasted a few years. Unfortunately, by the end of August, the wheels started falling off.

The summer always meant that pieces of the team would be torn down. Eze’s move to Arsenal made sense for all sides, as Palace received a good fee that they could use for a younger player. Palace did exactly just that, bringing in Yeremi Pino to develop into their next top prospect.

However, the move that the club failed to make in the summer haunts them the most: Marc Guéhi’s departure. In need of another center back, Liverpool offered over 30 million pounds, more money than the club could reinvest. Guéhi seemed destined for Anfield while Palace still had time to bring in a player and integrate them into Glasner’s system.

Sensing that this departure threatened to destabilize the season, Glasner made it his personal mission to ensure that this failed. While he won the war, the Austrian eventually lost the war, with Guéhi leaving for Manchester City for only 20 million pounds.

Ultimately, the club only missed out on around 15 million pounds, but it surely opened up a divide. The club wanted to get a fee to find the next Guéhi, but Glasner needed the spine of his team to stay in order to give Palace a chance at Europe. Neither side seems to fully trust the other, as Glasner’s future looks more and more likely to be away from Selhurst.

In a way, by trying to prepare and rearm for the next trophy run, the club ended this current one. Again, Palace went on a magical run that saw them win the FA Cup, but it was always going to be impossible to replicate. A middle ground, similar to Emery’s Villa, existed, but neither side wanted to budge.

If the Glasner era ends in the summer, none of this really matters, as he delivered the club its first trophy.

All that would remain are what-ifs, but those can be quelled by thinking of that magical day at Wembley.

Given the rift created by the aborted summer reset, all efforts were then passed onto the January window. Perhaps with four months of action to use as evidence, the winter window would give them a better chance to evaluate what they needed. 

Two options presented themselves to the club: either add young players like Pino to bet on, or supplement this squad with proven Prem veterans for Glasner.

Pino, of course, remained the club’s top prospect, but adding players around him would help elevate this club’s ceiling. Bringing in players on the fringes of their squad, or playing for struggling clubs, already proved to be this club’s method of operations.

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While Eze and Guéhi always seemed likely to leave from the moment that the club lifted the trophy, a potential Mateta move never felt real. The French striker reigned as one of the club’s success stories. Especially as the Frenchman moved from a relatively unknown import to a French national team player, he embodied everything great about the Glasner era.

However, as other clubs declared their interest and Palace entered a rough patch, talk of a move grew louder. While a Juventus move fell apart, the Italian club looked elsewhere, and an interesting move to Milan materialized.

Perhaps the Mateta situation and a need to appease Glasner ultimately pushed the club towards signing those who fit Glasner’s timeline. Adding Brennan Johnson and now Jorgen Strand Larsen represents an attempt to right the ship. Neither player has had a great season thus far, but they could bounce back.

Johnson might profile as the better player currently, but his fit within this squad is strange, especially given Ismaïla Sarr’s performances. The Norwegian, on the other hand, failed to move from Wolves last season, seeing his numbers plummet on one of the worst Prem sides ever. Both right dab in their mid-20s may offer a little more to the team in the future, but profile as better short-term options.

With the club and manager unsure of what the future holds, their moves so far this window reflect that. Needing to toe the line between competing for what’s left of Glasner’s time and preparing for the next era has led the club to make some risky moves.

Almost a year ago, the vibes emanating from Selhurst Park possessed few rivals. While those good feelings are yet to fully disappear, the future no longer shines so brightly.

Mistakes made over the summer have led this squad down a strange and unforgiving path.