Best of Times, Worst of Times for Crystal Palace

All but Manchester City supporters will have greatly applauded the Crystal Palace victory over the Citizens in the FA Cup final, technically securing a spot in Europe next year with a David like performance over Goliath Manchester City in front of a supportive crowd at Wembley just over a month ago. Rather than hoisting silverware, the South London side has usually been more recognizable for its loyal and exceedingly loud fan base, its catchy “Glad All Over” anthem, the only cheerleaders in the Premier League, and the iconic Eagle which both circles Selhurst Park before matches and adorns the club’s badge.

The FA title  was the first major trophy in Crystal Palace’s long and largely mediocre existence. The club’s history dates to as early as 1861 though its formal professional beginning started in the shadows of the Crystal Palace exhibition building in 1905. Since then, there has been little notable success even though the Eagles have managed to tread water in the middle of the Premier League table for the past 12 seasons. There was concern just three years ago that relegation might come calling after the departure of iconic star Wilfred Zaha. Instead, the club’s excellent scouting and development has developed a crop of young stars which, under the guidance of Manager Oliver Glasner, delivered that first trophy.

With success and attention comes a new challenge as other clubs target Crystal Palace difference makers. Michael Olise already left for Bayern Munich last season, even before his former teammates climbed the steps for their medals at Wembley. His former running mate, Eberechi Eze, is now being targeted by Tottenham Hotspur and other suitors. Liverpool is reportedly close to signing Eagle defender Marc Guehi. Real Madrid supposedly has an interest in midfielder Adam Wharton. Even Manager Glasner was rumored to be leaving for perceived greener pastures, most notably for the Tottenham Hotspur job ultimately filled by Brentford’s Thomas Frank. Such foraging expeditions by bigger clubs are expected when a club like Crystal Palace pokes its head above its normal obscurity down the table.

The unexpected success this season, however, resulted in another, more unexpected problem. The ticket to European competition, earned on the pitch at Wembley, is in jeopardy. The reason is multi-club ownership rules which impose restrictions on clubs with common ownership competing in the same tournaments. One of the Crystal Palace ownership groups, John Textor and his Eagle Football Holdings group, has concurrent ownership in another club which qualified for the Europa League. Because of a higher table finish in their domestic League, French side Lyon technically gets the Europa League ticket. Crystal Palace cannot even trade down for the Conference League as another Eagle part owner, David Blitzer, owns the Danish club Brondby which has already qualified there and similarly has a glossier table finish than the Eagles.

Crystal Palace, of course, is not the first club to be faced with such restrictions. Manchester City, for example, is part of a multi-country, multi-club model. The difference is clubs like Manchester City expect to earn a European berth and proactively plan to circumvent such restrictions. Among the options are a reduction in individual club ownership percentages or the placement of an ownership interest into a blind trust. Such actions, however, technically need to happen before March 1st.

No one expected Crystal Palace to face such first world problems on that date, and nothing was thus done to address Textor’s 43% ownership share. The dilemma quickly began to overshadow the extended Cup celebrations. The irony was that Textor had already been talking about divestment because of his inability to exert influence in a club whose day-to-day operations are tightly managed by Chairman Steve Parrish. The chairman and other Palace stakeholders were unable to reach agreement on buying out their partner and Textor reinvigorated attempts to sell to an outsider. That attempt reached fruition this week with the news that an agreement has been reached for fellow American Woody Johnson to buy Textor’s shares for $254 million. Johnson is the principal owner of another football club. Fortunately, that club competes (if one can call it that) in American football as the New York Jets of the NFL. Johnson is not involved with another “soccer team.” Should the sale go through, however, Crystal Palace still faces two problems. Firstly, will UEFA excuse the ownership change falling outside the necessary time window to address. Longer term, will Johnson gain the voice in Crystal Palace operations that eluded Textor? If so, that could prove problematic. The New York Jets last qualified for the NFL playoffs in 2010, the longest drought of any NFL team.

Club World Cup Beckons for Manchester City and Chelsea

The United States will be the scene for a revamped Club World Cup which will begin this weekend and culminate with a title match on July 13th. The group play format resembles past international World Cups (before planned 2026 changes) and that of the Champions League before this latter competition changed to an abominable “table” format this past year.

Thirty-two clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea from the Premier League, will be competing in this summer’s tournament. Unlike more typical summer friendlies played in the US, the stakes here are high in financial terms. The winner of the Club World Cup could rake in as much as $125 million. The stakes are such that contenders are fielding their best lineups despite the competition coming on the heels of grueling domestic league and cup campaigns.

There will be some powerful clubs battling in this summer’s heat. Champions League winner PSG heads a field which will compete first in eight groups of four, the top two advancing to the knockout rounds. Real Madrid is also one of the favorites and will have recently departed Liverpool man Trent Alexander-Arnold available for duty. German giant Bayern Munich will be there along with Borussia Dortmund from the Bundesliga.

While the Premier League will be represented by two of its top four finishers from this past season, one might rightly ask, “ What happened to Liverpool?” The Premier League champion, despite the loss of Alexander-Arnold, has strengthened in recent weeks with the addition of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Jeremie Frimpong and more recently coming to terms for his teammate Florian Wirtz, though only Frimpong would have been eligible for the Club World Cup. Liverpool, however, is not invited to this summer’s get together. A largely opaque selection process supposedly considers performance over the past four years but has resulted in several head scratching omissions. In addition to Premier League champion Liverpool, the cockamamie selection process has also excluded Barcelona and Napoli, the champions of La Liga and Serie A, respectively. Meanwhile, Barcelona legend Lionel Messi will be competing for Inter Miami, a team dubiously selected most likely for its star player’s appeal to the ticket purchasing public.

The tournament has not generated the ticket sales initially expected, which is worrying to soccer authorities as the World Cup will be played in the US next summer. Premier League sides Manchester City and Chelsea will do nothing but help those attendance figures. Both sides, particularly Manchester City, have large fan bases in the United States and, unlike summer friendlies, the stars should be out and playing significant minutes in these matches. The Citizens are third favorite, behind PSG and Real Madrid, in the betting odds to take the title this summer.

In the run up to this tournament, a special transfer window was opened for clubs to secure some new weapons for the competition and Manchester City wasted no time in stocking up. Defender Ryan Ait-Nouri was signed away from Wolverhampton. Rayan Cherki (Lyon) and Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan) were added to a Manchester City midfield which has said goodbye to Kevin De Bruyne. Jack Grealish, meanwhile, is a notable omission from the Club World Cup roster and may be on his way out of the club. Chelsea supporters, meanwhile, will get their first look at new striker Liam Delap in a blue shirt. The 22-year-old was acquired after scoring 12 goals for Ipswich Town in the Premier league last season. The brazen young striker has elected to wear the Number 9 shirt for the Blues. Midfielder Dario Essugo, meanwhile, has joined from Portuguese side Sporting. That has resulted in some unfortunate news for another Portuguese midfielder on the Chelsea payroll. Essugo will strip the number 14 jersey from Joao Felix who was on loan at AC Milan for the latter half of last season and is now in limbo. Chelsea’s defense, meanwhile, will be bolstered by the addition of Mamadou Sarr from French side Strasbourg. Manchester City and Chelsea should both advance easily enough as one of the two top teams in their individual groups. Manchester City will be wary of Juventus, the historic Italian side which defeated the Citizens in Champions League play in December. There is a steep fall in quality then, however, to the other group members, Wydad AC (Morocco) and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates). Chelsea will have traditional Brazilian power Flamengo in its group but should feel little threat from Tunisian side Esperance de Tunis and MLS’s LAFC. The Los Angeles team has former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Loris performing their swan songs in the US league.

While tournament matches begin on Saturday, the Premier League sides first take to the pitch when Chelsea faces LAFC in Atlanta on Monday followed by Manchester City’s opener on Wednesday in Philadelphia versus Wydad AC.

Goodbye Ange…

Ange Postecoglou

Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy finally answered the question. A trophy won over a weak Europa League field was not enough to compensate for the club’s embarrassing Premier League season. Spurs Manager Ange Postecoglou has been sacked after two years in charge. Many Spurs supporters were ecstatic after their club’s first trophy in 17 years. Others, however, realized what a shallow victory it was and one which was gained at the expense of making the team a Premier League laughingstock.

Changes to the Champions League had a ripple down effect which resulted in a less competitive Europa League this season. The senior competition was expanded to more clubs and adopted an odd “league” format which no longer had an opening round of group play where third place group finishers would then drop into the lesser Europa League competition. The result was a watered-down Europa League field which culminated in 16th and 17th place Premier League finishers meeting in a European final.

Seventeenth place Tottenham Hotspur defeated 17th place Manchester United 1-0 in a match more grueling for spectators than the players. Brennan Johnson scored in the 42nd minute with Tottenham Hotspur’s only shot on target. Postecoglou’s trademark high line and aggressive attack were out the window as his club sat back and easily countered the meager offensives of the worst Manchester United side in history.

Still, silverware for the long-suffering Spurs faithful should not be completely minimized. The Premier League, however, is a proud institution in England and supporters hang on each week’s league match with a great deal of emotion. Postecoglou cared little for the league schedule as he realized by January that the league table would be problematic for him and his injury ravaged squad. He prioritized Europa League, preserving his stars for midweek European matches. With little exception, Tottenham Hotspur became an embarrassment on Premier League match days.

The 17th place finish, the worst since the 1977 relegation season, could have been even more horrifying but for the poor quality of the three promoted sides this year, all of them suffering relegation back to whence they came. Twenty-two league losses tied the Tottenham Hotspur club record and were the most defeats ever by a Premier League side not suffering relegation for its sins. The worst of the three relegated sides, bottom of the table Southampton, was the only Premier League team which Postecoglou defeated in the last 12 matches of Spurs’ season. The glorious trophy raising and self-congratulation after the Europa win in Bilbao over another struggling Premier League also-ran, therefore seemed just a tad fraudulent. Even loyal Spurs supporters must have cringed when Postecoglou described the Spurs’ season as “outstanding “ after yet another league defeat, 4-1 to Brighton, in the Premier League season finale just days after defeating Manchester United in Spain. With respect to the poor league performance, Postecoglou would, of course, point to the effect of injuries. The thing is, however, that the Australian’s playing style pushes players to the limit and perhaps beyond in a congested fixture schedule. The injuries may not have been just bad luck but also reflected naïve management.

In any event, Spurs proved to be a club which could not manage multiple competitions, a prerequisite for a top English side. Postecoglou’s style was also criticized for its simplistic tactics which other managers could exploit by taking advantage of the wide-open spaces left behind when Spurs’ aggressive fullbacks went forward. There needed to be serious doubt as to whether Postecoglou and his merry men could return to league respectability while also competing effectively with elite clubs in the Champions League next season. Levy lost faith and Ange is gone, two full seasons after joining the club from Celtic. There was understandable worry from the beginning that Postecoglou may find things difficult at a far higher level of competition than he had ever managed at before.

Things started well, however, as Postecoglou treated supporters to an unexpected 10 match unbeaten run to open the 2023/24 Premier League season. Cold water descended on the euphoria and optimism with Ange’s 11th match in 2023, a 4-1 loss to Chelsea. The means of defeating Postecoglou’s simplistic style became clear. In the remaining 66 matches of Postecoglous’ tenure, Spurs would capture only 78 points. While he may have won a trophy for the silver starved north London side, he also lost more Premier League matches (34) than he won (31) in his time at Spurs.

After a fool’s gold start in England, Postecoglou time was marked by rising stress and disenchantment as the relationship with fans deteriorated. The joyous trophy celebrations seemed to have assuaged that. Levy, however, put emotion aside and made a calculated decision he believed necessary to ensure the club’s competitiveness next season. Goodbye Ange. Brentford’s Thomas Frank is the rumored frontrunner to replace the Australian. Betting lines have fellow Premier League Managers Marco Silva (Fulham) and Oliver Glasner (Crystal Palace) as next favorites.