Crystal Palace v West Ham Utd: match preview
Next up, having had our inoculations, we pay a visit to London’s dumping ground of Croydon where we will visit the Death Trap that is Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace. Kick-off is at 3pm and if your usual train to Norwood Junction takes you through Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gypsy Hill and Crystal Palace think again – this season’s first lot of engineering works will get in the way.
So Palace, then. A good run towards the end of the season has some of their amusingly naff “ultras” banging on about European qualification at the end of this season. That notion took an initial dent in their season-opener at Brentford last week where they went down 2-1.
That was probably a fair result in my view, though they will, no doubt, be pointing out the disallowed first-half effort from Eze didn’t help matters. Ref Barrott betrayed his rookie status by admitting to Palace players that he’d blown up early, thus breaking PGMOL rule no.1 which is lie, obfuscate, confuse but never, ever never admit a mistake.
After last week’s marathon session of new signings, the lovely Daisy was highly relieved to discover that they had signed only the three first-teamers. Don’t worry love, we’ve got Chelsea in a few weeks.
The Glaziers’ first signing arrived in the form of central defender Chadi Riad. The 21 year-old central defender arrived from Barcelona’s B team set-up on a deal worth a reported £14m. The Moroccan international was on the bench for last weekend’s trip to the Bus Stop In Hounslow but may be anticipating more game time given that Anderson seems to be Fulham-bound and Guehi still looks likely to leave before the window shuts.
Kit-sales will have received a boost with the arrival of Japanese midfielder Daichi Kamada on a free from Lazio. If that name rings a bell it’s because it was he who tapped in to give Eintracht a first-leg lead in the Thursday Night League semi-final the other year, leaving the match officials to finish the job for the Germans in Frankfurt.
He spent last season in Rome but didn’t endear himself to the Lazio ownership by allegedly demanding an €2.5m bonus to stay another year. Lazio declined his kind offer, their CEO muttering something about sending mercenaries on their way.
With the player not commanding a fee, it’s not recorded whether the player got a decent bonus from the Glaziers but frankly anyone in their right mind would want a decent wedge for having to work in Croydon, which, as you will be aware, is the cesspit that produced the loathsome former Mrs Percy.
The final first team arrival was Ismaili Sarr. Sarr spent four years over at Watford netting 33 goals in 128 league appearances. Back then Sarr was a £30m player but his stock, such as it ever was, has fallen over the intervening years to the effect that it took a mere £12.5m for Palace to bring the 26 year-old Senegalese international over from Marseilles.
Given the fact that Sarr appears to have been tasked with replacing Michael Olise, who legged it off to Bayern for €60m, Palace supporters might be forgiven for being less than overwhelmed at the deal.
