Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has said the Eagles “promise” to help players progress their careers even if it means leaving the club – and suggested “change” is yet to come at Selhurst Park this summer.
Despite ongoing uncertainty over their position in Europe next season, Palace have already added two new defensive troops to Oliver Glasner’s FA Cup-winning squad.
But the club’s successes last season haven’t gone unnoticed, with several key players being linked with moves away from South London.
The most notable of those is playmaker and England international Eberechi Eze, who is the subject of interest from Arsenal, while the likes of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich are also reportedly in the race for his signature.
Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, a reported target of Manchester United, is also rumoured to have spoken with Premier League champions Liverpool in recent days, and centre-back Marc Guehi is another to have been linked with the Reds this summer.
Meanwhile, after enjoying a stand-out season, wing-back Daniel Munoz has expressed his desire to play for “the best teams in the world” and says he “hopes” to leave Palace for pastures new in the current transfer window.
That will make unwelcome reading for the club’s fans, head coach and chairman alike, but Parish has admitted it is often part and parcel of being at a club like Palace.
Speaking on a new episode of the podcast The Rest is Football, the Eagles chief maintained that “people love playing for Crystal Palace”, but added: “The group are amazing and they love being there, but people want to progress their careers.
“Part of coming to Crystal Palace, sometimes, is the promise we make,” Parish said.
“We are part of your journey. You look at Michael [Olise] who has gone to Bayern, you look at all these players that have gone on. It’s about managing change [at] football clubs. You can’t cling on to everybody.”
Squad planning is “constant” and happens “all the time,” he explained, with the club looking full seasons into the future to assess where they stand with players’ contracts and renewals as well as where likely “pressure points” will be. But it also involves dealing with the unexpected.
“Some of it you can plan, and some of it, like you say, you get a phone call and you need to react to it,” Parish said.
“Last summer, we got a phone call out of the blue from Fulham on Joachim Andersen, we decide to sell him and then we went and got Maxence Lacroix.”
Addressing the current transfer window without naming any names, he conceded: “There will probably be some change this summer and we will be the first people to wish that people that go well, and just make sure we try bring in new young talent that can do the same.”
Parish also confirmed that Palace would be challenging UEFA’s ruling that has seen them demoted from the Europa League, adding that the club is “very hopeful” that the decision could be overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
