Squad Numbers

Dougie Freedman is staying at Palace after rejecting a move to Newcastle. This is a seismic moment for the club,

Whilst it could be argued that this could be down to him being offered a significant pay rise to stay at Palace, Newcastle would have certainly offered a similar pay rise. Newcastle also offers something that Palace don’t, almost unlimited funds. It must be the dream of any sporting director to have almost endless possibilities in who you can sign, and Freedman would have surely relished the challenge of building a squad to compete at the highest level of European football as Newcastle wish to do.

However, perhaps Freedman can achieve this at Palace. Yes, that is a long shot, and perhaps a bit over the top considering that Palace were threatened with relegation only a month or so ago. There is reason to be optimistic however, Palace’s squad is the strongest it has ever been, and only needs a few more additions to it to make it a real force to be reckoned, and you would back the club to make these additions.

Freedman has been instrumental since he rejoined the club in 2017. He masterminded the summer of 2021, in which Palace secured the signings of Marc Guehi, Michael Olise and Connor Gallagher (on loan), amidst others-I wonder what ever happened to them?- Since then, Palace have continued this trend, with an emphasis placed upon young players being bought low, developed and sold high. The following summer, Palace signed Cheick Doucoure, Naouirou Ahamada and Chris Richards, all players under the age of 23 at the time. Most recently, this season just gone, Palace signed Matheus Franca and Adam Wharton.

The average age of Palace’s squad has decreased from 28 in 2017, when Freedman joined to 26 now, showing the effect of Palace’s transfer strategy.

However, the club, and Freedman, do realise that you cannot have a squad of all 20 year olds, the club have been just as smart and astute in buying players aged 26 or over. For example, Jordan Ayew, Nathaniel Clyne, Will Hughes, Jefferson Lerma, Sam Johnstone and Rob Holding have been signed for a combined cost of £10 million. Freedman, and Palace have done very well in this market, whilst none of those players particularly pull up any trees, they have proven to be valuable members of the squad-okay maybe not Rob Holding but in general they’ve all been useful. One of Freedman’s key strengths as Sporting Director, isn’t just identifying whether players are good, it’s identifying whether the person behind what we see on the pitch is someone who can contribute to the group, and provide a positive atmosphere.

Palace’s squad, whilst lacking depth in places (hopefully this summer can address that), is one that is very balanced, with a mix of youth and experience, Freedman has to take immense credit for that. This is all the more impressive when you look at other clubs at this moment, whose squads look incredibly disjointed, such as Manchester United and Chelsea. Freedman, and the club, very much have “shared vision” and a “structured plan”

The club has shown huge ambition with this move and others in the past year. Oliver Glasner being appointed as manager, albeit a half season too late, shows that the club can attract top quality personal. Glasner has pedigree, having won the Europa league with Frankfurt, and he too is very ambitious and wants to see the club. The club have tied down Michael Olise and Ebere Eze to long term contracts in the past year, and Olise directly turned down Chelsea to sign his last summer. And finally, the new contract of Dougie Freedman, the club is keeping its key assets-Steve Parish must have a way with words.

There will have to be sales this summer, to balance the books and enable Palace to boost the squad elsewhere. Marc Guehi will almost certainly leave, having not signed a new contract at Palace as he enters the final 2 years of his deal. There is also, as I have mentioned, significant interest in the likes of Eze and Olise.

Whilst there is reason to pessimistic about this summer, and worry about multiple players leaving, and the club returning to the doldrums of the first 6 months of this season, why do the players have to leave?

Palace is clearly in an excellent place at this moment, finishing 10th in the premier league is a huge achievement itself, as the club haven’t done that since they returned to the premier league 10 years ago, but that doesn’t even tell the full story, since Glasner has joined Palace, they have averaged 1.85 points per game, which equates to 70 points over the course of a premier, and that is with an acclimatisation period where Palace initially struggled under Glasner. Finishing with 70 points would have put Palace 4th in this season’s premier league. Now there is a caveat to this, as it is a very different thing to go on an excellent 7 game run than it is to sustain that over a 38 game season, plus the cups. The intensity that Palace are playing at is enthralling to watch but it will be difficult to replicate over the course of an entire season.

Many of Palace’s best players have been convinced to join by Dougie Freedman, so seeing him stay will only increase their confidence in the project that they would have been sold when they joined Palace.

All of these things provide a succinct possibility that Palace’s best players may be convinced to stay this summer, opening endless fantasies over what could be achieved over the course of next season, European tour anyone?

The elephant in the room that we haven’t discussed is the new incoming transfers. In the past months, and even years, Dougie Freedman will have been scouting and talking over to many players over possibly joining Palace. This was perfectly orchestrated by Adam Wharton’s transfer in January, Freedman had long standing interest in Wharton, scouting him even in the 2022/23 season, showing that the process of signing a player goes well beyond thinking one day “He’s a good player, let’s pay some money and get him”, Chelsea take notes. All the possible signings for this summer and beyond would have become much less inclined to join Palace if Freedman had left, and the process of building on the success of this season would have become much harder, especially if key players need to be replaced. Furthermore, in the long term, Palace may have struggled to attract quality players without Freedman.

Overall, Freedman agreeing to stay at Palace speaks of a club on the up, with the ability to keep its key assets. There is every reason to be optimistic as a Palace fan. The club is certainly on the trajectory to reach the “next level” and Dougie Freedman is central to that.