Where next?

Now some of the smoke has cleared and dust settled on Palace’s season, if I had to sum up the 2020/21 campaign in one word it would have to be ‘slog’. The past several months has been a grind, with little to captivate, or get excited about. Bar the odd bright spot; the debut season and form of Eberechi Eze, the re-emergence of a goal scorer in the shell of Christian Benteke and a heist of Ocean’s Eleven proportions at the Amex, this has been a season of uninspiring, dull football, with performances lacking dynamism and cohesion, and a feeling of apathy that has seemingly permeated into all aspects of the club. And yet, at no point did I think we would go down, nor were we anywhere near at risk of doing so. What to make of it then?

Reasons to be cheerful…or fearful?

Following the final whistle on Monday night, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Crystal Palace had just been relegated, given the collective slumping of players to their knees. Perhaps a call back to an edition of MNF from 1998 when they had been by the same opponents. Yet while the game meant the team remained below the dreaded red line of doom that signals the relegation zone, it was the heart breaking nature of last minute defeat, rather than it being a fatal blow that had so emotionally drained those players.

The good, the bad and the ugly

In the end, a draw; one that felt like both a victory, but also a defeat

Can Palace survive this season? 2013/14 shows it can be done

Looking at Saturday’s game logically - rock bottom against the champions – Palace will finish the day with a played eight, lost eight, pointless record. And yet, that could still mean being in a stronger position than when Ian Holloway left back in 2013. 

The Fear

Going by the Frank De Boer experience, Roy Hodgson has three more games to save his job. Given that they are against Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, the former England manager might want to start preparing his cardboard box to take away his belongings from his office already.

Soldiering on

Like supporters up and down the country, the hope for Palace fans was that in the week up to the transfer deadline, and on the frenzied day itself, there would be some significant squad strengthening going on. Palace though have stood still, which in the Premier League is the equivalent of reversing off a cliff. In this window I couldn’t stop gazing at West Brom enviously as if I was in the guy looking back meme as Tony Pulis’ baseball cap sashays by.

1 down, 37 still to go

While losing 3-0 at home to a newly promoted team on the opening day was a fairly awful way to kick start a new era at Selhurst Park, there needs to be some patience as the teams style and philosophy changes

I Believe in Miracles

“In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director”

Alfred Hitchcock

If he’d been alive to see ‘I Believe in Miracles’ the documentary about Nottingham Forest’s amazing ride from the second division to double European Champions, then Brian Clough might well have said “and God was the star as well”.

Famous 5ive: the future at Chelsea

Following elimination from the Champions League, the Stamford Bridge side of CollinsBeans looks at five key areas that need to be addressed in SW6 

Wandsworth Athletic Cult Hero: Istvan Borbely

An Alternative Reality: A Championship Manager/Football Manager Dream Team

They say that you should never meet your heroes. Perhaps that should also say “you shouldn’t watch your Championship Manager Legends play in the real world.” On several games, Northern Irish International Danny Griffin was a go to guy if you needed a centre back that could bring the ball out from the back and also do a job as a holding midfielder. It was guaranteed that if you didn’t snap him up early he would always, without fail end up at Arsenal. It was sad then, that seeing the actual player up close and personal several years later playing for Stockport County, he didn’t quite stand out as much as I hoped he would. 

Football in England might have a few double standards

Woe betide the unsuspecting foreign player who waves an imaginary card…

Bring back Manish

Be careful what you wish for. Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side; that other side being Channel 5 in this instance.

From the sublime to the ridiculous

What with the recent well publicised and much debated failure of English sides in Europe this season, I thought it was perhaps interesting to look back to the heady days of 2008 when English football was celebrating three teams in the semi-finals of the Champions League for successive years and looking forward to an all Premier League clash in Moscow.

The collective versus the individual

How the experience of young Darnell Furlong shows the importance of partnerships on the pitch and not existing in isolation

Should Ched Evans by given a second chance?

As he's released from prison, CollinsBeans has its say on the Ched Evans debate

Cult Hero: Frank Lampard

“BREAKING NEWS! We now go live to the Britannia Stadium car park…”

Jim White, yellow ties, Harry Redknapp’s car window, fax machines and Peter Odemwingie; just like the rest of the football world, transfer deadline day now has its own clichés. And alongside those clichés comes the ever increasing belief that fans are now more excited by, and more eagerly anticipating the day of last minute deals, ridiculous rumours and loan moves for unwanted League 1 strikers than FA Cup final day

Wandsworth Athletic – the third gold star

A triumphant return to Rocks Lane 

Wandsworth Athletic Cult Hero: Pikey Runt