[ad_pod ]If you’re a supporter of Crystal Palace, you don’t need me to tell you that the club’s transfer strategy – if there even is one – is slightly botched.Since being promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2013, it feels as if the Eagles haven’t signed a single player who has been sold for profit.Let’s scratch beneath the surface a bit more. Dwight Gayle was signed for £6m and he scored a respectable 26 goals in 74 appearances. He was sold for just £9m – a profit, but only a slim one.Yannick Bolasie was another notable player sold for profit, a man who was signed for just £350k and sold for £25m.However, aside from those cases and the freakish transformation of youth-team-winger-turned-quality-right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, which saw Palace net £50m this summer, the strategy looks bleak.
You could argue that the south Londoners wouldn’t get their money back on any player in their squad apart from Andros Townsend at £13m, Luka Milivojevic at £12m, profit on free transfers Vicente Guaita and Max Meyer, as well as Wilfried Zaha, of course.
But would Palace get their £9.5m back on 29-year-old Cheikhou Kouyate? Their £9m back on one-goal Alexander Sorloth? Their £10m back on 30-year-old James Tomkins? They certainly wouldn’t ever get near to their outlays spent on the injury prone duo of Mamadou Sakho and Christian Benteke, spending £26m and £27m respectively on the pair who can be classified as vanity signings the Eagles should never have brought to the club.
Worryingly, Palace’s squad is hardly littered with young players carrying the potential of a sudden markup in market value. Out of those considered first-team players, only Zaha, Max Meyer, Jairo Riedewald, Sorloth, Jeffrey Schlupp and the permanently injured Connor Wickham are under the age of 28.
It seems as if Parish isn’t learning his lesson on this front judging by some recent transfer news concerning Palace.
The 2016 FA Cup finalists have been linked with moves for Nathaniel Clyne and James McCarthy, both of whom fall perfectly into the category of everything negative outlined above.
Injury prone? Check. Nearing their thirties with little chance of selling for a profit? Check. High wages as a result of them being experienced top-flight players? Check. Clyne earns £70k-a-week, whilst McCarthy earns £50k.
We thought that Parish had learned when he sanctioned the arrival of then 22-year-old Max Meyer, an exciting young prospect who could see his stock grow easily over the years. An extortionate £125k-a-week salary and a total of just 15 league starts has soured the merits of a deal that initially appeared to be a progressive stroke of genius.
According to Goal, Liverpool value Clyne at £15m.
The England international, though, has suffered knee ligament damage and will be out for six months, so a deal during this window looks unlikely. A lucky escape, but for how long?
In McCarthy’s case, the Irishman suffered a horrible leg break back in 2018, which ruled him out for 350 days, and he has since been unable to get back into the Toffees’ first-team.
With his injury problems in mind, it’s fair to assume there’s little chance Palace will see a future return on their initial £10m investment.
Needs must and all that, but Palace have been plugging gaps for too long and it will start to catch up on them eventually in the shape of the Premier League exit door.
In the video below, find out which Chelsea academy prospect is reportedly being lined up to replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka at Crystal Palace…
Nobody expects Palace to become Liverpool and find gems comparable with the £8m deal for Andy Robertson, but when bottom-half rivals such as Bournemouth are even showing foresight in the market, there are few excuses for not doing the same.
The Cherries made shrewd investments when signing Lys Mousset and Tyrone Mings for £5.4m and £8m respectively, players who they have moved on this summer for £10m and £20m despite being firmly on the fringes at the Vitality Stadium.
It is disappointing to see Palace attempt to reinvest their Wan-Bissaka money in two players who carry little by way of future resale value, and reported interest suggests Parish is failing to learn from his mistakes.