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That's vector wither. Okay. Okay. Correct. And it was sponsored by JCIS, the global research and brand consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com. Great. Good. I'm actually getting through those without completely screwing them up. We are there for the podcast Palace Beat, South London 1-0 and joining me to chat about that is James Dendicott. Hello. How are you doing? Good. Very well, actually. You seem very chirpy. I'm very chirpy. I love it when he's chirpy. And he's straight. He's not chirpy, but how are you feeling? Yeah. You're fine. Good. Brilliant. And Rob Sutherland. Hello. How are you? Yeah, good. Thanks. Good. Also kind of chirpy. So are you going to apologise to listen to this? You've got performance last week. For what? My performance? Yes. I performed. Okay. Apart from the last 20 minutes. We got a little bit to see before the podcast. Oh, really? I didn't have to. You were celebrating Palace being on a fantastic run and being sick from the table. I mean, we've drawn the previous match. What was befitting of a piss up more than a draw? True. Well, we could have lost. We were celebrating a point in games. But Palace, did we not start there against Southampton? They did. The first time that Palace have ever beaten Southampton in the Premier League. Wow. That's in 1993. Good start. And of course, that's when football wasn't there. Yeah. It's good that we've gone back to years. But it has the last four games since we got promoted in 2013. We'd lost all of them. So certain progress against Southampton. But James, was it a deserved win for Palace? Absolutely. I think it was one of the best performances of the season, to be honest. It was a good team performance. There was a lot of flair in there. There's some great individual performances. But what got me about it was just an amazing team performance. And it just, as we say, week in, week out, it just shows how far we're coming at the moment. You know, that a team like Southampton can come to us. And we made them look very ordinary. A team like Southampton that when Palace got promoted would have been one of the teams that they've looked at. Absolutely. And so that's the team we want to emulate. And now... Well, I think, in the beginning of this season, we'd have said that. But now... We're beating them. We're beating them. And deserve a dislike. The only downside is that I think we should have scored more goals. Well, their keeper had a good game. Very hard game. Personally, I think the man of the match. But from a Palace man of the match, Rob, most people after game seem very split. Going away, came to the set, good performances across the board. Everyone was divided on who should have been man of the match. That proves that there was decent performances. Yeah, it was. It was decent. I thought if you're going to highlight players, you'd probably look at Janik Balassie in the first half. He was just storming, wasn't he? Kind of wick him throughout. Like, he hasn't scored, but he's going to, at some point, that goal will come. That header in the first half, the shot in the second half. Both really clear chances. I don't know. I think there were lots of positive performances throughout, really. Hennessy had a good game. Yeah. Well, he made a good save. He looked at our fallbacks as well. They had to play against Sadio Marnay, who has been probably one of Southampton's best players. He probably could play for one of the better sides in the league as well. Well, I polish. Well, yeah. I got slayed. I got slayed because I did ratings after match for ESPN and I gave Hennessy a 7. And a lot of people tweeted me and said he should have been higher. But he's really tall, isn't he? He can't get much higher. Very good. But he did think, my theory was he made two great saves. He didn't actually have much else to do, apart from that. I actually thought he was more solid all round, actually. He claimed a couple of crosses that sort of three or four games ago he wasn't coming near for. Decision-making was better. He didn't look quite as tentative as he has done recently. I mean, you can say, "Oh, it's only two saves." But arguably, well, not even arguably, he did win us the two points at the end of that match. The save earlier in the match is even more sort of spectacular in some ways. He's got no right to get over to that header from Davis, I think. Yeah. I believe so. I believe it was. I believe it was. I believe you're right. There we go. All together more considered than sedate than last week. Also, you see, yeah, it was like two fantastic saves. It helped because it had a great save against Everton as well. Yes. It is that thing we talked about often. It's all about confidence. You have one good game, one good save with the goalkeeper. Next one. So hopefully that will carry on through this. I mean, he's lucky in some ways and probably annoys some people by saying this immediately. He's lucky in some ways in that the mistakes that he had when he first came into the team were against inferior teams to those against which McCarthy made his mistakes and was punished straight away by Man City and by Spurs, whereas Hennessy made a couple mistakes against Watford, a couple of other matches that weren't punished quite as readily. But he is now, you've got to be fair to the guy. He is now ground into the role. And he's looking more and more accomplished and defence now looking confident in him when they weren't necessarily when he first was put into the role. And you've got a certain moment that he is fully deserving of being the starting goalkeeper. I think that when you make any kind of significant change in terms of players that you have, so when you go from someone like Speroni to Hennessy, when you go from someone like Jenak to McCarthy or maybe Kebai and then Ledley as well, you do end up in a situation, Glen Murray for Wickham. You do end up in a situation where there's that kind of hangover of expectation of people comparing one to the other. And in fairness to Hennessy, I've been critical of not so much of Hennessy, but just this kind of strong belief from certain people that Hennessy would be the better, you know, was the better goalkeeper in the squad at a time last season, even when Speroni, I thought, was actually doing a decent enough job without actually having proven that. And at the moment, the way that he's playing right now is indicative of someone who is capable of being our number one. Joel's been a bit harshly done by because whereas McCarthy lost his place for making mistakes, Joel doesn't - because of injury, he hasn't even had the chance to come in and play and looks like third-choice keeper now. I think it's probably not entirely fair, but then you look at - if you're talking about keeping players in the side when they've actually done all right, you know, if that's the focus, then Hennessy deserves to be there. But when you talk about fairness, football's not fair, is it? Well, it's not. You're always judged on your last performances, your last two or three performances. Yeah, but Joel's was the end of last season. Unfortunately, he was injured for a while, you know, other keepers have come in, and that's just the way it goes. You know, your head has got to rule your heart sometimes, and, you know, we all think with our hearts, being palace fans - I've been any fan of the football club - but being palace fans, we all think with our hearts, and we all love these players, you know. But, you know, sometimes your head's got to rule your heart, and I think Hennessy is the right choice to the world, and he will get better. Hopefully it's not going to be that good in the summer. It's sort of his - it's sort of his - for Wales in the Euro is against you. They got England, didn't they? That's why I mentioned it. Yeah, good thing. I'm just making sure that listeners knew what you're talking about, because most of them... It's the land of my fathers. I'm at 8th Welsh, actually, and again today. Which I - there's the leak coming out of my head. Lots of palace players for Welsh people as well. Yeah, of course. I'm sure of them. It kind of feels like - it feels a bit like Hennessy's spot to lose now, basically, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Until he makes a hounder, which he hasn't really yet. He has done very well. Speaking of half criticism or unwarranted, Conor Wickham had a tough few games back then he from injury. Palace fans, some Palace fans, a bit critical. But fair to say now that he hasn't scored yet. But fair to say now, straight, that he has definitely got up top, and he's proven he can play that role. Well, again, he would put in a very mobile performance. But he kind of bottled out of a header a little bit in the second half. I think that where he's kind of cut across the man and probably should have put his head in it. But he equally created a chance for himself where the ball comes over his shoulder. He controls it one foot and then hits it with his left foot. And forces a very good save from the Southampton goalkeeper. And again, his movement's getting better with every game. He's looking sharper. Whereas when he first came back into the team, the touch was a bit heavy. And as you'd expect from someone out for a few months, he didn't look sort of fully match fit. And he's now getting that sharpness back. And I like the look of him. I mean, lots of fans won't necessarily thank me for saying it. But I think in a lot of ways he's probably an upgrade on Glen Murray in terms of movement, mobility, pace, even sort of first touch sometimes. Not necessarily the intelligence yet, that means the come. But I like the look of him. I mean, you'd expect that if Palace want to sort of be upwardly mobile from the sort of position they're in at the moment, sick and want to consolidate around there, they may need other strikers, and possibly better strikers and kind of wicking. I think he's equipped himself well so far. And I think anyone who's criticized him probably just needs to look at the impact he's having on the team as a whole. And it's no coincidence that we went through a patch where we weren't creating anything in the final third. He's come back into the team and all of a sudden there are chances being created. Well, we saw a Liverpool doing when he came off the bench. We instantly looked like we had more kind of presence. We play for 30 yards further up the pitch, don't you? Because there's actually someone there who can win the ball, hold it up, try to bring people into play. He's good at just shifting the ball about, waiting for the runner to go ahead of him and then finding the pass, which is all you sometimes need from a big guy like that. And I think he's doing really quite well. You also need goals as well. But does it matter as the way we play? Does it matter as much as the man up top doesn't score that many goals because you're looking at the field. It doesn't matter, but it'd be nice, wouldn't it? Of course it would be nice. I think for, again, being a striker, you want to score goals. That's how you're judged. You're judged on how many goals you get. It definitely matters to him, doesn't it? And so you should do. It's his bloody job. It's not all of his job. It's always a part of his part of his job. He's a centre forward. He's part of it. But I think the role, the way we play in that top man, he's got to do so much more than score goals. I agree with you. You want him to score differently. I agree with you. But thanks, man. Well, we'll see your next few spots. There's a loving. There's a loving. Christmas is in the end. But there is so much more to that role up top. And that's why I think Gail struggled a bit because he doesn't quite offer the other stuff of that role. Fraser Campbell, I think, has struggled. The thing he did as well that I think he deserves some credit for is just chasing down and putting these defenders under pressure. One of the problems I think we had before we came back was that we didn't have that focal point and we didn't have that bully. You know, you kind of need, I think Fraser Campbell has a tendency to be a little bit like that. He's not like a pest than a bully. Yeah, kind of a pesty. A gnawing, like a little sort of midge. Where's Joachim? Joachim is a good mix of the kind of physical as well as just being more mobile. And we thought he forced two corners against Southampton purely from putting defenders under pressure. Yeah, he did. Speaking of other strikers, I've obviously Shenmach's had a couple of cameos since about 45 seconds on Saturday. Yeah, exactly. He paid a week or two weeks before that. Newcastle, are you coming in? Newcastle? No, but he came on against someone else. Obviously, assuming he doesn't... Sunderland. Sunderland, assuming he doesn't break his hamstrings again. Do you want to see him back in the start and end up and where does he go in terms of positional? Well, I've actually spoken so many times when we mentioned it last week and we mentioned it time and time again. Paul, you've spoken in effusive terms about Shenmach and he clearly rates the guy very, very highly. Whether or not he plays as a 9 or a 10, I wouldn't like to say. I suspect, given where Paul has played him for the most part, it's probably one or the other. You know, he played as a 9 against Liverpool, Anfield, more or less, but was dropping deeper. He played as a 10 in the cut game at Southampton where he's sort of trying to create stuff for the gold machine that is Yoyo Sonogo. And he's more than capable of playing either. They're all particularly when he's got players like Zarrar and Elasi outside him and Ponch and coming from slightly deep as well if he plays with him to sort of find passes for. He's more than capable of playing than any of those roles and it will give us some options up there. I personally prefer him in number 10, I think. I did too, but I think he's capable of playing not, but I too prefer him in number 10. But I mean, it'd be interesting to see if he does, if he's fit enough to do it. He's then linking up with Janik who's hitting the form, will be hitting the form. I thought Ponch was so much better on Saturday than one of his best games of the season so far. So it's actually quite exciting to think that you throw Shemak into that mix. I mean, that's a decent 5 or 6, 4 minutes. Well, that's what you need. You need depth, you need players on the bench that want to be on there. You need that. I don't know if Shemak will get into this team in the moment, to be honest, but I think he's in a massive addition to the bench. I think that's really important. And if you're up to a 3-0 with 20 minutes to go, then put him on. I think it'll be great to see Shemak back because when he first joined Palace, he was the kind of player that would lift the rest of the squad in terms of quality. Whereas now, we've basically got a squad that's capable of complimenting what he's good at. But as you say, it's going to be difficult for him just because of the strength of the team as it is right now. Especially if Ponch continues in the vein that he was in on Saturday. I thought he's absolutely magnificent. And as with most things, things get exaggerated. But you look at his numbers. They are down on last season a little bit, not massively, but a little bit. Like goals per game, assists per game, key passes per game, chances per game. He's down a little bit on his averages for last season. But, I mean, if he can carry on like he was on Saturday, he'll surpass anything. I thought he was absolutely brilliant. He was changed as a direction. Oh, there's little Shemak in the second half. Oh, really? We've sort of lost three players at once, but I thought he was better when he came into the middle. Because we started off how we started against Newcastle, that kind of fluid 4-4-4-2 team with Janik in the middle. And then we went back to 4-3-4-2-3-1 in the second half and punched for the middle. I just feel like he looks a bit more comfortable in that. I think we spoke about it a couple of pods ago, and this may be just a bit of a mad idea. We were saying that maybe Ponch wasn't playing so well this season, because he felt a little bit in the shadow of Kebai. And sort of taken away that sort of shine that he had. And you know, he had a major interview in a national newspaper on Saturday. I think it was in the Guardian, which is a great interview. If anybody's not ready, you should try and look at him online. Other news papers are available. Probably not available. And I just think he was, you know, how people were. He'd have seen that. It was on people's breakfast table or on their laptop on Saturday morning, reading about his love for the club. His love for the club. His love of South London. And he had to go out there and prove himself that day. He had to prove himself. Again, he was a set of attention that day. When he went something, most people would have read the article. And I just think, you know, players need their ego stroking. And he definitely does more than most, actually. And I think that was a really, for me, whether I'm slightly off-kilter with this or something. But I think that's probably got a little bit to do with that. I mean, I think, obviously, it's a manager's job. Managing those egos is nothing you look at. Well, as well. Well, if it's a similar one, we've seen Pards do that. We've dropped Bingham and Bingham back. But Punch and Kebai, they can play together, definitely. There is a way to get the best out of them, surely, isn't it? The both of them? I thought I was going to punch him. I'll roll a little bit about it for the five things we learned piece that I do. And I kind of feel like with Punch and, you know, his stats might be down. But I think in part that's because Kebai is taking some of that responsibility from him. You know, he's no longer that kind of focal pivotal player in our midfield. Because he doesn't get the ball as much because Kebai does that. And that's fair enough. But what Punch and then has to do is basically make himself a bit more available and do the good things that he does anyway, which is the skillful things right. They can play together. They're completely, you know, especially if Kebai is playing, is intent on playing that deeper role, then someone like Punch and is exactly the kind of player that you want playing alongside him or just the head of him. Because that's the person that you want to feed the ball to. The thing you've got to remember is that, you know, these are top level athletes and top level footballers. But they will sometimes just fall out of form. I mean, we had Steve Brout on the pod probably about two years ago. And we were saying, well, it was a time where things were just not going so great. And we said, well, what do you think is the matter? And he said, well, it's just the fact that, you know, sometimes you'll get two or three players just hit a bad run of form for whatever reason. It just doesn't seem to click for them. And maybe for Punch that times in some games so far this season, I think it was prior to Liverpool game, particularly I think he's picked up and kicked on since then. But, you know, you're going to have bad runs of form as a player. And it does happen. In fairness to Pargy, I think he can tell the difference between when it's a player that needs to be played through that bad form in order to get it back. Or someone like Zaha where he kind of went through that kind of spell and not playing very well. And the only way to deal with it was to drop him because he's, you know, different players, different mentalities. And I think Punchin is the kind of player that you probably do need to play through bad form. Look at Pulis, he did the same thing. He missed the penalty against Spurs. And after that, it turned him to a completely different season for Punch. I think it's the same in this case. Is there any particular reason or any reasoning behind why he does seem to have a slow start and a better second half? Or it has in the last two years? Or was that just completely random? I think it's quite random. It could be random, or it could be that's weird though, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Life's weird. I think it's the odd. It is when you're around here. You're dealing with different elements of the season because at the start of the season, you look at Aston Villa when they came to set up as a park, and they, when it went one all, it looked like they could actually go and win two-one. And they've only won two games this season now, I think. Is that right? 11-1, is this your opening day, the season possible? So maybe you've only won two. They've won one and drawn three, I guess. Or, you know, so that gives you an indication of what the start of the season's like. And as you get into the later part of the season, you're dealing with teams who actually, who know their, kind of know their roles and know their positioning. And they've got players playing the parts that they've been given, and punching kind of fits into that as well. It's a change to the emphasis as well, because, you know, like last season, there was always some form of physical defence in midfield, and some of us have said there's still a place for that on the right occasion. But we've played more or less every week with Cabot, with Cabot McArthur there, which is, it is a slightly different balance than it was last season. It's going to then take, you know, a slight adjustment from various players, and we went through a period where we weren't creating a lot in terms of open play chances. And we weren't really doing a great deal, even from set pieces in the final. We spoke about it, then we had a run where we scored a lot of one goal from open play, and we were relying upon penalties and the odd corner. And now we're starting to create more chances. But that's, you know, it's just the nature of adjusting your team round and trying to make them better. And those players getting used to having an influence like Cabot at the base of the field, getting used to playing with Cabot McArthur rather than jetnap being there to sweep up at all times. You know, they're adjusting. I think it'd be a bit harsh to put it all on punching being out of form. Maybe it's just him adjusting to the changing team as well, you know, that they've all had to do that. And we're talking about punching being out of form, and yet we're sick from the table. You know, like, this is probably, well, I think you can't say that he's out of form after seeing anyone setting up. This is easily, for me, personally, it's the best, best Palace team I've ever seen. You were saying earlier about clubs, you get to the stage and clubs know their role in the table and stuff. So, what's Palace's role now? Well, exactly. What is our role? Because we wouldn't be as better to be here as someone. We don't know why. I'd role this because we've never been here for a long time. It's weird, isn't it? Pargy's even talking about fourth place. Really? I mean, he even means ridiculous. I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but he was saying that Aspen Wenger mentioned eight clubs, and he felt that Palace are probably the ninth club out of that. And that he's probably not, that someone like Wenger isn't giving Palace the kind of credit that they deserve. But that is what we're talking about here. And, I mean, in fairness, 26 points, that was the same points total that Newcastle were on when Pargy left them. So things can go drastically wrong, but right now, it doesn't look like it, does it? Certainly the way we're playing, because we're playing very confidently. Speaking of a player playing confidently, Janik on Saturday, he's learnt to cross. Well, he's learnt to cross, he's sort of learnt not to do too many running around with his feet and falling over the ball and not running over too many minutes. He just seems to have grown up quite quickly, to be honest. And again, it's confidence that he's scoring goals, well, he's making goals. But boy, he's really crossing. Good on you. Is that in part, do you think, because we've now got someone like Wickham, who is right in the centre, ready for that kind of cross to come in? Where as we go, you'd end up often seeing him kind of drop to the D. I think there's a bit of that, but I think he sometimes doesn't go past that extra player. If he doesn't read as, you know, he seems to think a little bit, boy, it's not all about his feet moving over the ball and everybody goes, wow, he's brilliant, but I just wish he'd make a bloody cross. He doesn't do that anymore. He seems to just, he seems to have cut down on the, on the techers, as they say in young people's land. Young people's land. Worst theme park ever. I mean, I thought his, his assist for the goal was particularly intelligent players. He's received the ball. He's won himself half a yard by sort of not backing into Fontaine, because it wasn't, clearly, it wasn't a fact. But like, wins himself a little bit. Space puts Fontaine back on his heels, then, then really goes for... Change of pace. And you know, it was, it was just change of pace. It was pure speed. There was, there was no messing, it was just speed, and that's why he's brilliant. And then still takes the time to look up and actually spot the run of Kibai coming into the box, like lots of players. If they're not at the level of a Yannick Molassie at that stage, just whip it across the six yard box. Allow the keeper who was having, and did have a very good game to, to claim it quite easily. But, you know, has the sort of speed of thought to notice the run and just a brilliant, brilliant assist and a good goal. What we did, the Palace Fan TV review for November, and Terrence Ford, who's from Rimm Blue Army, said, "Is it a coincidence that Yannick's crossing has improved?" And Wilson has a bit here and there, since John Sallarco has come back as coach. You know, arguably one of the best wingers at Palace, working now with the players. I mean, it's a fair point, isn't it? It's a fair point, yeah. Okay, moving on to the next. No one think that John didn't, that might be... If anyone asks to the training down to there, we don't know how good he is at teaching crossing, and we don't know whether it's just the Yannick and Wilf have played themselves into some... I don't know, you know, it's a coincidence, yes. Now, whether the two are related, it's, you know, it's a debatable point, possibly not. But I think it's more to do with the fact that Wilf and Yall are growing up, growing into the team, and are just working out just to how to play and how not to... You're not in the playground anymore, you know. And I think that's what they're learning very quickly. Maybe John's had something to do with it, maybe he hasn't, I don't know. But, you know, he was a great cross the ball, Sallarco, no doubt again. You know, whether he's a great coach or not, I don't know. You know, it's, let's debate it. Again, without winning, wishing to kind of press the point, you look at when Wilf and Yannick have been at the most potent, it was with Glen Murray in the side. You know, that kind, again, that focal point, that having someone in the box, or having the understanding that there is going to be someone in the box to cross to makes a massive difference to how I think wingers operate, because ultimately, when you've got someone like Dwight Goell in the tack, or even, you know, Fraser Campbell as well, a lot of the time, like, just from a Sunday league perspective, if you're a winger and you're thinking, that guy's not going to score if I cross it, I'm going to try and do a little bit more and maybe create a chance myself. Much like when we used to play around the street on Sunday league. I was a footballing genius ahead of my time. It was a bit like when Lombardo played for Palace, just two moves ahead of the rest of the team. Two moves at all times. I mean, Troy Dini was on goals on Sunday this week, and he said, "The only way you really stop punching and Zaha and Balassie is by putting two men on every single one of them, and basically giving yourself no mobility throughout the rest of your team." Now, we played some teams earlier in the season who were a lot more defensively minded, a lot more compact. Last three games we played against the Sunday game, because that also falls into the bracket of the earlier compact teams. We played against Everton recently, and Balassie looked quite dangerous. They both looked dangerous against Southampton. They both looked dangerous at Liverpool. And these were teams who didn't bother to do that, sort of doubling up on any of those three, whereas when we played against the slightly more compact teams, that's been more or less what the opposition have tried to do at times. I mean, it's kind of helped that we've had this run of games where it's been against teams who are kind of set up almost for the counterattack. And it's made probably them look not better than they are, because I think they're playing fantastically, and they're great to watch. But I mean, I think it suited us the type of opposition they've had at times of late. We've still got to find a way, though, possibly, again, but playing against teams that do come and sit and defend if I do. I don't think we can really undress. I mean, I bump into, like, all of us, you know, everybody listens to this. We bump into friends all the time, and more and more often our friends are saying, "Wow, you're like a proper team, you know, it's amazing. You're a proper Premier League team, it's great." But every single one of them always say, "It's those two wide men that do it." You know, and it's the unpredictability we say. And I say, you know, I get frustrated with Zaha and Balassie as much as I love them. But I wouldn't want to change that. Yeah. I don't want to change that. And in the same way that we don't know what Zaha's going to turn up or what Balassie's going to turn up, imagine how the opponents feel. They've got no idea what's going to turn up. And I think, you know, the way that Annie's just talking about how to put two men on each is the only way you are going to stop them, because if they're on fire, and I think that is, you know, as much as we love Kabai and he's running things and we've got a great defence now, we're down the lane in the middle, you know, we've got a great keeper and it's all looking great. You know, you've got those two players who are just, they are just flipping this whole league. I mean, a lot of just throwing Palace. Every team in the league just looks at those two and goes, "I wish we had something like that." They're killing everyone. It's amazing to watch. Against good fallbacks as well, you know, against Bertrand, who's been, you know, starting more often than not for England that time over the last sort of six months, he's been getting called up and is very highly thought of, and just was absolutely embarrassed by Zaha at a time, particularly in the second half. So they're not doing it against Mugs anymore. They're not doing it against brilliant, intelligent defenders, and they're just making them look like falls. But the beauty of that is, because the way Yannick and Will play, they're almost sort of, this is some really unfair, but there's sort of highlight real players. And I think that's why people from other teams enjoy watching them. But we know that actually the rest of the squad has got a lot of talent and arguably underrated in terms of like MacArthur. So actually teams might focus on those wingers, but actually we've got the rest of the squad can play as well. So it takes to focus away from some of the other players that play very well. I think we're very lucky that Leicester are doing so well. Chelsea are doing so badly. There's other teams around us that are, you know, overperforming, maybe sort of what for them are doing really well. And he's sort of taken the shine a little bit off Palace, and we're not the most people in the meeting already given Mugs about Palace anyway. They're only now starting to give us a little bit of recognition. And I think it's, you know, we are using it to our advantage. So if we start the season or start of when we got promoted, we were looking at Southampton and Swansea who have fallen away and stoked to emulate those teams. Are we at a level with those teams now? Are we at a Southampton level? I think we are today in the middle of December 2015. Let's answer that question properly in May 2016. You've got to be a little bit careful about it as well because, you know, you've got to remember that Southampton had a fantastic season last season there, potentially a little bit of sort of regression to the main going on this season. Maybe that performed a little bit last season and they're slightly under-performing this season, but we've got to sort of do that over an entire season. You know, we didn't do that over an entire season last year, although it was a great year. And it would be very, very early to say on, you know, the 13th of December that we're at that level now. It's got to be done consistently. It's got to be done when we lose one of Keboia on MacArthur to injury, which will, or suspension which might inevitably happen. I think you also have to take into account that teams like Southampton, I think Swansea were in Europe as well, the Europa Cup to start off with at the start of the season. Southampton, you know, these are evident last season where they went on that amazing run in the Europa Cup, Europa League, I guess it is. Wherever it's called it though. And ended up almost, you know, having such a drop in form in the league that they kind of had to, you know, get themselves out of that situation. I think that that's partly the risk of playing, of reaching that level. Because for a club like Palace right now, I think your dad was saying that he'd prefer it if we didn't make Europe this year and just have an opportunity to build a little bit more on what we've got in order to be better prepared for the subsequent seasons where we might actually be able to do. Crazy though, that you're saying we don't want to make Europe this year and no one else is laughing you off the pod. That's a serious thing to say. It's ridiculous to show the far we can't. When you've got 26 points at this stage of the season and we're playing as well as we are, I think it's fair to chat about that, it's frightening a little bit because, look at where we were. But people don't like talking about where we were, do they? Well, I do. But anyway, talking about the podcast, we're going to wrap up part one there in part. It's like a Christmas present. Very good. I mean, this isn't the Christmas pod. You're getting the Christmas time. Are we not going to tie a mind? Children singing in Christian rhyme. Very good. Logs around the fire. Please don't do the whole fire. Other religions and types of wood are available. Good. Right. In part two, we've got questions from our listeners, so join us in a bit. Welcome back to the Five Year Plan podcast. The pre, the podcast, Christmas Eve pod. No, it's not. Advent. Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve. Anyway, nearly Christmas for God's. We are sponsored by Vector Printing for your printed embroidery needs. Go to vector.co.uk. That's Vector Wither. Okay. Okay. And JCIS, the Global Research and Brand Consultancy from South London owned by a Palace fan. Oh, there we go. JLS, do you say? JCIS. JLS. It's a band, isn't it? They want the ones that you signed? No. No. Anyway, no, not JLS. Check on that. Although, I think they split up. But if they do want to sponsor us, they are welcome to give us money. I think they're one of those accounts for them. Really? Yeah. In fact, I'm not even making that up. Really? I think that's true. That's why I'm making it up. Anyway. I don't know who I am anymore. Oh, God. I want to be a real boy. Oh, God. It's one of those bloggers. OK, JCIS are our sponsors, and their website is JC-IS.com. Right. Shall we back on with questions from our listeners? Yes. The first question comes from Paul Lawrence. Hi, Paul Lawrence. Hello, Paul. Paul says, "With the Harris Blitzer Investment Deal, hopefully getting done this week, and he's putting brackets, SP told me. He's apparently Steve Para told him that. Do you think this will impact the January transfer targets?" Now, there's been Andy a little bit of progress. There, hasn't he? Well, showing that Palace fans are always a little bit too eagle-eyed and perhaps have a little eagle-eyed. You didn't even know you were saying that, did you? I did. And then I sort of checked myself and thought, "No, I'm going to go ahead with the awful Hackney pun anyway." It worked. Thanks. I thought so. Just showing how attentive Palace fans are, there was a company registered by Harris and Blitzer, well registered with them as directors with its registered address as Selhas Park Stadium, and that's about all that you can infer from that, you know. It's probably highly likely that a company registered at Companies House in the last week with its registered address as Selhas Park Stadium with only Blitzer and Harris as the directors is probably going to be involved in the investment somehow. There you go. Just Blitzer at Christmas. You're like Donna. Yeah. You're talking about Rangers. Yeah. What is this? That's what you're talking about. I'm not you talking about Blitzer, so you're saying that Blitzer is going to be delivering places. It's a Rudolph. We're going to be signing over Palace. Yeah. He's going to deliver a financial present at Christmas hopefully. Okay. That was horrible. But the question was, will it impact January transfer target? I think Steve Parris been in the press in the last few weeks to say that the money is actually going to go towards development of the stadium rather than the January transfer market. That might just be a way of discouraging selling clubs from basically pumping up the price knowing that there's a shed load of additional cash there. You would expect, because I personally think there are, and I'd imagine lots of Palace fans would have different opinions on which areas. But I think there are areas of the score that need to be worked on if you want to consolidate that position around where it is. Where do you think should be worked on? I think you need another striker, don't you? Because whether or not you think Conor Wickham is the right choice or not. When he's out, we look a lot less effective. I think if could buy on MacArthur, get injured, then we're in a little bit of trouble. So I would like us to get an upgrade on personally, on Zhenak who I think the legs are starting to go. I think a bit cover it, centre back. There's a few positions. And as you said, there was a quote from an apology today in one of the papers about... Yeah, he was saying he was in the Guardian today. He was a quote, he was talking about your hand goodbye. Saying how well he's fit into the team and that it's great that a player of that quality, that Palace can attract a player of that quality. And he said what we need is another one, maybe two of those players, and then we'll be a really good team. Well, I mean, that would be fantastic. Just another two-year-old hand goodbye. It's just easy. Yeah, we're just going to get them in. Well, I think the investment from the two reindeers basically... You're going to have to let that drop, sorry. Because people were listening at that point and it won't get in. Yeah, I think the investment from those two will actually potentially free up some of the money that might have been earmarked for the stadium. You know, that it's bad... I mean, we all know rehearsed, but it's going to need it. It's going to take us on to that next level in need of development. Good, we'll be very exciting to have a bigger cell hearth with more seats and hopefully fans will come along and fill those seats. You'd expect it to be all completed before Christmas though, I think. Yeah, definitely. Oh, I think that it's stadium development for us. I don't know. Very quick. It does. Very quickly. Oh, my word. Very quickly. I think in, whenever it was, 1950 something, when the Arthur Waitsdam was being built. So you're not in '60s. Palace either couldn't afford enough builders or something, whatever, I needed help. And so lots of local Palace fans came along and helped clear the rubble and start building the... Community spirit. It was just after the war though, so was that real community spirit? Isn't that fantastic? It's amazing. It's fantastic building their own stadium. It was in '60s. It was in '60s. It said the '50s. '50s, it was like the end of the '50s, after the '50s, after the '50s, after the '50s, after the '50s. It's a really old '50s stand. It's like 15 years. It's like 50s. Right. Next question. What are you talking about? Next question. Confused. You will be after this episode of the FIP podcast. 160. Next question. Yeah, okay. Next question is from David Fraser. Hello, David. Hello, David. Hello, David. Hello, David. Hello, David. Would you like a glass of milk? David's question is, and I'll say I'm all at a human table. David's question is... Cut that out. Is the... Is the Premier League poorer in quality this season? Or have we, and a few other teams, just got better? It's just... No, the median quality that has improved because everyone's got loads and loads of cash there. Yeah. They've got... Here you go, Leicester City. Have 70 million pounds. Here you go. They have 70 million pounds. There's now less of an advantage for the likes of Chelsea, and the likes Manchester United, because it'll be that they can go and spend... 60 million quid on a player. 60 million quid on a player. You know, other teams can go and spend 10 million quid and still very good players like Jojo and good boys. I think it also helps that clubs like Manu have basically bought players that aren't actually that much of an improvement on the players that... You know, they've not bought the highest of calibre players, and so they're not performing to that level. Whereas for Palace, I think as... It's just levelled out, really, as you say. I mean, I think the thing is that as the season goes on more and more, I think Arsenal and City will stretch away, because I think it'll be that J.D. is now snickering and I'm very serious. There's some very funny questions as well. Well, no, no. You've completely ruined it. Next question. No, you can carry on. I was just going on about how Arsenal managed to stretch away. But we're done. It wasn't the most multifaceted point. I was just using long words to make it sound clever in the actual years, like I usually did most points. I don't think we've got the best league in Europe, but it's definitely the most exciting league. Certainly this season as well. Well, I don't know. Just saying it. Well, I think you'd look at Spain and you'd say that the top two are better than the only one on each league. The top one, again, is probably better than a lot of people in our league. I think in terms of average quality, I don't think there are many leagues as equal. Yeah, but you don't know much about the Belgian league, do you? Or the Swedish leagues? Well, I'll know each exactly. The Irish Premier League. The IPL. I thought you said, wasn't it what's better? I thought you meant what's better having the best league in the world, or having the most competitive? What would you rather? Well, best is very subjective anyway. Some people want to watch Real Madrid and buy a sign of beat everyone, you know, four and five. I know every single week and absolutely love that. I'd say that ours is probably at that level as competitive as any league anywhere else. This is interesting. I was out with a friend the other day, and this is me name dropping a little bit. But he's Gattuso's brother-in-law. Clang. Gattuso won a World Cup for Italy. He's played for Rangers. He's played for Rangers. Yeah, he's my friend Scottish, he's my mate's sister. Doesn't know you're not a delegate or something. Gattuso. I don't know. No, that's Del Piero. That's Del Piero. Anyway, Gattuso, I've never met the guy, but I was out with his brother-in-law a couple of weeks ago and I was a mate of mine. And he was saying that Gattuso's favourite league in the whole world that he watches as much as he can, even on playback, is the championship. Really? Yeah. He said because he just finds it, he said it's so on a level, that all the teams are so, and he goes, and also the prize is so massive. Yeah. That the competitive nature of the championship is what, and it's not necessarily the skill level, it's more the competitive nature. And I think, I'm saying that to prove the point about the Premier League. It's the competitive nature of the Premier League that I think draws us all in. The fact that you can get, well, I'm not counting as to Villar because they can't do anything at the moment, but most teams can beat everybody else. Certainly this season, the competitive level has got much more level playing field, so. Good stuff, good question. The next question comes from Neil Peters. Hello, Neil. He says, "Should FYP be rebranded as 'How far we've come' fanzine?" No. I mean, it's not casually. Five-year progress? Progress? This is why I don't let you two go into the name stuff. We just end up being called, "Oh, haven't we done world fans yet?" Or, "How about five-year party?" Because it has been a five-year party. No, that just makes it sound like some sort of really niche pornographic site of some sort. And I just don't want to get into that. So, no, we're keeping it as FYP into your back. FYP, for your palace. For your palace. For your palace. For your palace. There you go. For your palace. Actually, go for your palace, though. Is it? No. That's official. No, I can't. The next question. No, they take it. Oh, we're going to nap. That was a joke before the pod. Sorry listeners. Right. Now his question is from Rob Goodwin. Hi, Rob. Hi, Rob. Hi. He says, "What's Saturday Yannick's best performance this season? And are we going to lose him in January?" And I will tag on to that another question from Chris K. I was about to ask if you need some hold music. I was scoggling through the questions. Chris K, who says, "Would we still sell Yannick to Spurs in January if they offered 20 million?" So first part, was it his best game, and would we take 20 million for him now? I can't think of many games where he's played much better. Oh, I can't. Although he was fantastic against Newcastle as well, I thought. A bit against the terrible, terrible, terrible team. I think it probably was his best game could sell out to a better team. Yeah, I'd agree with that. It was good against Everton, but yeah, you're right. I think in terms of performance. In terms of just the contribution he made. I mean, in terms of selling it, this point has been made at Nauseamond, sort of Sky commentaries and stuff recently. The medium level Premier League clubs are now on the less pressure to sell. Everton were offered 40 million in quid for John Stones, albeit that he's a very good player, didn't feel the need to take it, because they've now got so much money coming in from the TV deals that it's kind of our way in terms of benefit of taking the cash now, keeping the plan and then getting the money in from the TV deals. So unless Yannick really disrupts for a move and goes, "No, I don't want to be here. I've got any circumstances," and you can't see why he'd do that when he's playing well. He looks happy now, and he looks a bit more settled than he did a couple of months ago. I'll just be incredibly surprised. I also don't think the club would say, "Oh, 20 million. That's a good deal. Let's take the 20 million," because, as you say, Andy, they don't need the 20 million. When you just got the two American guys to come in. Yeah, and also there's so much money now in the Premier League from TV deals and all that. And you're right, it goes back to the first and the second question of what everyone's about, how it's getting slightly more of a level playing field, you know? I don't think you're not going to find anyone that has the impact to Yannick's having at the moment for 20 million. Anyway, really. And who's going to try and bid for him? When you look at who we'd be competing against, Spurs, who we're level one points with right now, despite they've had more goals. But then also, who would they want to bring Yannick in for? Who does he replace? I hate the thought of selling someone. I hate the January Chancellor. I'm not a fan either. Just the thought of selling one of the players that makes you stand up and encourage, make going to Selhas Park worthwhile. Definitely. Just the thought of selling something like that. It's one of the players that's been on the journey with us from the bottom of the Championship all the way here. What a journey. Now you want to know how it felt when Stuart O'Keefe left. That's not over that kind of worms. The next question. Don't cry. The next question comes from Daniel Hakola. Oh, I love Daniel. I don't know. He says, "Which Palace player or players do you think would be the best coach after finishing as a player?" Oh. Good question. Good question. I've never really thought about that. Damon Delaney, perhaps. Just because of the kind of his experiences, what he's gone through. Didn't you say on this very podcast that you didn't want to go into coaching? Oh, maybe. I don't know. I can't remember. But if you're looking for characters... A character in terms of leadership, he's got leadership qualities in terms of experience. He's gone from playing almost at the lowest level to playing regularly and well at the highest level. Why not? If you want someone like that kind of character. I think Brito is a fantastic show. Yes. I think that's probably why not. He's a very considered man. Is that good? I'm going to be here and talk here. I also think... They wouldn't have to give you a call. He would have made it a goalkeeping coach. Well, we said that before, we hope that he will stick around as well. That would be good. If not that, then in a restaurant or something. The next one comes from... That is the most disrespected person. It's a bit extraordinary. You know, because of his restaurant... You can bring people butter if you want. You want to be Jesus. You want to be sous chef. No. You know what I mean, because of his restaurant. I said lasagna. I said lasagna. Don't want this. What do you say? He'd be good at taking through to the tables. Because he wouldn't drop it. I'm done. I'm sorry. That's really disrespectful. The next question is from... Oh, God. It's from Dave Cook. Hey, Dave. He says, "When I drop a player from my fantasy team, currently, could buy Dan or Janik, they always score. Who should I drop for Stoke, Wickham, Shamak or Suarez?" Don't drop a Palace player. Do you have to drop a Palace player? I've got three in mine. I dropped. J.D. What did you do at the week? I dropped. Did he score? He scored and got bonus points. I take part in the Premier League, the Premier League. You've got a choice of three players. To me, you always have to have three. And where are you in the league? I don't really care about that, do I? Right. I find the actual Premier League in a fantasy for my life without playing to childish boy games. I have no Palace players because there's no room for emotion and I found better performing players in terms of points per money unit. You're wrong, though, because Scott Dan is one of the most points I've ever played from defence. So someone has been paying attention? I've not logged in before. We can buy that. He's got a lot of points in midfield. So anyway, who should he drop out of those three? I think it'd be nice to see Wickham get a go. In terms of playing along with the question, I think it'd be really nice if we could get more score. Playing along with the question thing. That was a nice question. It is a good question and I could agree with you. I'd like to see Wickham score. He's added so much to the team recently. He's playing well, performance is good. He's creating some half-decent openings for himself like against Southampton with that photo that we mentioned, the header against Emerson. He's getting into good positions. It's just a matter of time you would have thought. He's getting closer. He's getting closer. He's getting closer. The next question is from James Hawkins. Hi, James. He says, "Can we try and get on my shed sun or game of two baths back at half time?" Yes, please. This is very random. What's the best half-time entertainment you've seen at Celeste? We had this conversation a couple of weeks ago on the pod, and I was saying my favourite was when the Monday night football first started on Sky TV, and there were two giant blow-ups who were wrestlers that used to come on at half-time and fight each other. Do you know the best bit? One for each team. Fantastic. The best bit is that wasn't even supposed to make it onto the pod. We hadn't started that part yet, but we found it so amusing here and you ran on without seeing my wrestlers. Oh, yeah. We actually included it. My favourite one was when I went on and did the half-time thing and had to get over the hoarding and fell on my horse. Did you? Yeah, I did. I went on and did that one time. Oh, really? I never did that. It came from half way long. It came from half way long. It came from the half way long. I kick it from the edge of the arrow. I blasted every single one over. Really? I never knew that. Some go on that, didn't they? And they had to get to the car. They had to get to the car. They were devastated. Oh, he's actually won the car. Oh, crap. And then it was never a thing. I'll try again. But then after that, they made it more and more difficult. So they took it from being like the hoarding across the bottom half of the goal. It's been this tiny ball-shaped, only slightly wider than this conference of a football hole in the middle of the goal, and no one wanted fun enough of that. Funny that. It just became like watching someone kick a ball against a wall, which you do it wherever you like. Do you remember the... For me, one of the things that I remember is when they had the world record attempt with the crystal cheerleaders, the original crystal cheerleaders crew, and they got like a bunch of random kids all to dance on the centre. Did they? Yeah. I think it was against the record. I don't know. They made the record. I don't know. I think they did. Brilliant anecdote. I don't know, but it was so amateur. It was brilliant. I also liked the... Do you remember Freddy Mercury in person there? Yes. That wasn't amazing. So bad. No one usually cares about Hart on its tail, but he got sort of booze in unison around the entire ground from 20,000 people who come back to their seats from the bar, just the booze. And that also happened with the gospel singers. I think we've had some terrible before. They're quite merciless at all. I think it's about hard time entertainment. But when you set the bar that high with sumo wrestlers on my shed sign and it gave me two bars. There's none of those challenges. There's none of those challenge games back anymore, like the game or two bars or anything. Nothing like that. It's a shame. There's so much going on at half time now. Well, no, it's just... Or you get the crystals going on dancing to some crap heavy metal. Yeah. And then somebody giving somebody an award for something that they've made. I don't know. And then the half time sleeper draw that no one can remember anyway. Well, I always lose my ticket. I get a ticket. Me too. I forget about it. I probably haven't won. Right. Next question is, this is a great question from a great named listener from Paul Phoenix. Oh, I think he's risen before. There we go. And this is a great question. Oh, God. I have no idea how this is going to go. So, Paul, you went out drinking with some of the fans after the game, which were the homestel fanatics to celebrate ten years. In the white horse, I think. In the white horse to celebrate ten years of the homestel fanatics being a group. If you were to go relaxing with Paul as over a pint, what would you ask him? I would ask... I'm going to give a serious answer here, rather than the defamatory one, mostly because he's not here. I would say, did you really think that Kevin Day's question about it being more difficult to play at home than away was a stupid question? Or were you just trolling him? At the third year, he was at the party here, and Kevin still mentions it in a really hurt and quite insecure way. Is that why he brought it up? He caught me stupid. I think it was actually quite a fair question. I thought it was so. I'd ask Paul if that was actually what he thought of that question. Good one. Would you guys ask Paul as over a pint? I would probably ask him, does he really feel that the legendary status was justified just from one goal in a semi-final FA Cup semi-final, which was, oh, was a great goal and I was looking very well. A bit of a quick pint now, won't you? Sorry, enders, I've got to leave. I'd probably ask him that if Newcastle came back and said you've got complete control of everything that's going on at the club, would you go back? Surely he wouldn't go back. But can you imagine? I think it's a, you know, would he go back and how thinking about how Newcastle came back? Can't imagine. He would never go back. I'd be amazed if it, just given, I think he places quite, you know, great importance on the fact that he's got the relationship with the fans that he has it. And obviously that's not the be-all end or, and obviously if May and I came knocking him and go, well, I know that huge, huge clubs come in for me, but I could go drinking the white horse and that's clearly not going to come into it. But I think going back to a club where the fans just disliked him, actively disliked him, albeit perhaps people could say it was a noisy minority, but a vast section of their sport just really, really didn't like him and wouldn't want him back. I'd just, I'd be amazed if someone of Pardee's elk would just go, "Oh yeah, fine, go back." I think he's happy here because we, because we do like him, because he was a former player. Yeah. Although obviously it wasn't a fantastic, but I did an interview with World Soccer Talk this week and they, they, they're trapped on there. A really nice guy was asking me, what is it like having a cult hero, pallet legend back. And I had to say, he wasn't, he wasn't that good a player. He wasn't actually that great. I mean, yes, he put the ball in the scales as well. Yeah. And, you know, I was a lot of people. Because he's a former player, that he's kind of a pallet legend and he sort of wasn't really. I guess, I guess the other question you could probably ask him if I'm like, but it's, I don't think you'd get to a second question. Well, just, just the England job. But just the England job because, because, you know, to some extent you could argue that this pallet's exercise is, is in some ways a PI exercise as well, because he's trying to do, you know, he's doing all the right things the right way, isn't he? He's building up a good relationship with fans. Yeah. He's showing a kind of a level of professionalism that he perhaps would, would himself admit that he didn't really show it new cast, especially with regards to other managers, other players, you know, headbutting as whatever else. Yeah. I think this is, you know-- He has said that, if, if-- He would like England. And he's also said that he don't like it. He don't like it. He'd only take it for, you know, one tournament. Right. So then, you know, what would you say? Would he take the-- I think that would be a better question than the new cast, if I wanted to lead with, to be honest. Yeah, I didn't really think that. Well, you could warm him up with the new cast question. Right. Then his expectations could be really low. Right. Am I going to go back to a club where they wanted me out for two years and where I hated it? Yeah. Oh, now you've asked me the England question. I'm okay, yeah. Right. But it's an ego thing as well, though, isn't it? Like, you know, it's interesting, because it'd be an interesting challenge to go back to somewhere like new cast and having another go trying to convince him that he's actually a better manager than the new cast. Certainly. It'd be my humble opinion. Good. Okay. We'll have two more questions, then, before you wrap up. The first one's from Andy Lee. Hi, Andy. Hi, Andy. And he says, "I don't think we've ever been asked this. What is everyone on the pod's favorite home and away kits?" Very simple question, but I don't think we've ever been asked. "My favorite one is a red and blue stripe." Good. More specific? Well, the question needs to be a little bit more specific. Does he say just-- I'm assuming he means it. Home and away kits. It doesn't even say palettes, but it doesn't even say palettes. Okay, river plate away from 1972. Good kit. Very good. Yeah, very good. To be serious, I think the favorite-- Ooh! Favorite home kit would be the ADAS one. The bar unit one. I didn't like it until. Yeah. It was classy. Like, Non-Bardo, it was brilliant watching him in that kit. And then, away, I still think the evil sash, the black, with the red and blue stripe, I love that. Admiral sash home from A.C. Strong one. Or 79, I think. 79, I think. Yeah. It's no doubt someone will tweet me, abusing me to get there wrong. So apologies in advance, but the admiral sash, for home, away. I've got a crazy little love for the Brazil kit that we used to play. Because it was just so painful. It was just so mad that we wore a Brazil kit. Well, I like any of the yellow awakens we have. A bit of an affinity to it. I think they're really nice. I think it's fair to say. It's fair to say. It's too well in the awakens. The yellow one. Since CPFC 2010 took over, I think it's fair to say that the majority of our kits have actually been really nice, especially compared to Jordan. I didn't like the half-and-half one. Really? Yeah, I wasn't a fan of that. I wasn't a fan of that. The Bartle kit, I thought, looked terrible. But that was made up for with the evil sash awakens kit. I'd have to agree for that. My favorite home kit ever. But compare that to the area kit where we had that weird triangle thing. Yeah, some of those are terrible, yeah. Really tricky. I like the bi-minute one, but I love the affect up funnel. Oh, that's a shit we wore for a couple of years. Well, the away one. No, not the bumblebee one. No, no one likes that. One game or one game or one game or one game? The Virgin. The Virgin. But is it Bookford? Bookford? Oh, it's just gorgeous. Good. Right. Final question goes to Mike Timbs. Hi, Mike. Hi. And he says, "Given that we've been a second half team for the last two seasons, what's your prognosis?" Well, he means second half of the matches. He means second half of the season. All right. Stop being facetious. But I think we are. Well, I generally better after half time. OK, fair point. But what's your prognosis for 2016? Sorry, I can probably mean second half of the season then. Yeah. He does. Yeah. Well, we're not going to win a match again and then we're going to go down with a record high number of points. Anyone serious with a serious answer? I'd just like this to carry on the way we're going, really. And not lose too many games. Just to keep that fighting spirit. Just hit the 40 points and then who knows? I think we'll counter through 40 points quite early comparatively. I'd like to knock on the door of success and it opened up and welcome us in. Right. I think that is a good point indication for me to have a break. So part three, we're going to go back in time for in this week. And so, do you want us to know a bit? Welcome back to the five-year plan podcast. There we go. There we go. There we go. POD160 sponsored by Vector Printing for your printing embroidery needs. Go to vector.co.uk and that's Vector with a K. K. And JCIS, the global research and brand consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com. So, shoutout to part three. It's time to go back in time, get in our DeLorean and head back this week to the 14th of December, 1994. Oh. As you know, I'm using Neil McSteen's brilliant on this day book of Crystal Palace to reference these. I think Neil might have been stuck a little bit for the 14th of December though because here the only two updates are that Chris Coleman played for Wales against Bulgaria. Look, I've told you before, stop this in Wales. And that in 2001, the Silverworth Park Club Shop stayed open until 9 p.m. So, the Andreas Rubens and Andrew Martin could sign autographs. Fantastic. What a glorious day in the history of our beloved Crystal Palace. What day was that? 14th of December, 2001. Was it midweek? They don't do that anymore, do they? No. They actually do autographs. Was that, I tell you what, those were in the days where we used to put a lot of these events, and literally two people would turn up. I missed those days. Well, we used to have the old open day, do you remember the open day? It used to be before the start of the season. No. I don't know how many more. Go to the pitch and stuff, couldn't you? Yeah. Let's look around the stadium. You know what I learned today about that? No, it's not quite, but in Latvia, it's the law for males to have an S at the end of their first name. It's Andres Rubens, and then also Alexander's Clinko, apparently the S is a legal thing. Wow. I didn't know where that was going to go. But I'll be honest, if you start it, it's actually quite interesting. Yeah, you can make that palace. Well... You brought that back at the end. A Rubens was... Maybe I'm Latvian. Maybe. Maybe I am too. Yeah. Yeah. Rubens. You reckon? Well, I'm actually for this event. I'm not. Andres Street. Rubens... Was a good... We spent a million pounds, and we didn't want that. He was recommended by Arsene Vena. And it scored two fantastic guys. And he was, at that time, managed by Gary Johnson, who was Latvian manager. Yeah, because I believe Veng aired him online, but then Johnson also recommended him to Palaceman. Oh yeah, hi, and Gary Johnson, in one of the many times that Gary Johnson tried to scribe a Crystal Palace football club. And we saw him. Do you think Rubens would actually, I think, at that time, the team wasn't ready to think now? No, no. No, no, no. No, no. Okay. I remember him being quite good. He was all right. And then in that second leg of the Liverpool, against Liverpool in the lead cup, Steven Gera, just completely destroyed in the tackle. And that is it. I think he didn't wake up. I mean, I think it was also the fact that he wasn't very good at football. Yeah, he's very good. Okay, I remember him being not too bad. And he did score two for... He was a brilliant... Alex Klinko was a competent goalkeeper. He was competent. I thought he was fine. I mean, he was erratic and he did get punched in the face by the Palaceman. I saw him from that. I think he was... He wasn't. He was lovable. He was like a lovable... No, maybe he wasn't that good. I don't know. Next. So let's also give back. Oh yeah, here's one. That's 1995. Okay. 20 years ago. 20 years ago. So it's in 16th of December. Saturday 16th. Okay. Which Palace player scored his only lead goal for Palace in a 2-1 victory away at Stoke in the first division? 1995. We spent quite a lot of money on it. It was Gareth Taylor. Wow! Well done. Well done, Street. Gareth Taylor's debut, I think, was also Dougie Freedman's, around Dougie Freedman's first game. Yeah, Gareth Taylor's debut for Palace was against, I think, Stoke at Home, which was Dougie's first home game. Dougie made his, I think, debut for Palace against Birmingham away at the game before. So there was like a new, new strike force at that point. But yeah. And obviously, one of them went on to become a Palace legend and the other was Dougie Freedman. No, Dougie, of course, went on to be a Palace legend but Gareth Taylor faded into obscurity. Did we go from Bristol? Gareth Taylor. Bristol rovers, I think. So he was so bad for Palace that after he scored that goal. Yeah, blonde hair, didn't he? He did have blonde hands. Yeah, he did have blonde hands. A long look, blonde box. After he scored that one goal, various fans got together and printed it. I saw Gareth Taylor's scoreteacher. His dad was at a match thereafter. I mean, that's just really offensive. I take deep, deep offense at that. All these lads walking around in these. I saw Gareth Taylor's score. So yeah, it's done. It wasn't. I still got that teacher. I won one of those. If anybody's got one of those teachers, could you please take a picture and tweet it? Yeah, great. I tell you what, anyone who can tweet us a photo of them in an ice saw, Gareth Taylor's scoreteacher will give a free fanzine too. Can we do that? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Excellent, yeah. And it was against Stoke, who Palace players on Saturday. He was absolutely terrible. He was absolutely terrible. His dad was probably listening. He'll be deep. His dad might be down. See me. Right. Last one then. We're going back to the 19th of December, 2003, when Ian Dowie was officially appointed as Crystal Palace manager. Oh, those heady days. And turn things around. But the next day, 20th of December, Kit Simon's took charge of the team. Anyone know who we played that day? Ready. Yeah, ready. Wow. A score for Palace. Yeah, 3-0. Scorers. Julian Gray scored, I think. Didn't he? Did he come back? I know that was Forrest. Johnson definitely scored. Yeah. He scored two. I'll be honest, he's not written down. I've absolutely no idea. Possibly. This is a good section, isn't it? The part of this one. I think you really? I was up in Scotland at the time, and I actually flew back for it. Well done. It makes you 20th of December, and then Palace Run must have been in the bottom three at that point, or really certainly around it. Very close. And then we got Clales at the end. It makes you realise, well, great one. That's the second half of the season. That result, basically, some Palace fans think that that result was essentially all Kit Simon's, and Kit Simon's then helped us get all the way into the playoffs and win the playoffs. Well, I think that result probably was the side. Ian Dowie doesn't deserve any credit for the playoffs. Any credit for the promotion that we got because Kit Simon's recently been sat by Fulham, isn't he? Kit, unfortunately. Yeah. But obviously, certainly, set Dowie on his way. And was a pivotal win in that season. Yeah. Good. Right. Well, there you go. That's all in this week. For this week, some good ones there. In the final part of the podcast, we're going to look ahead to the trip to Stoke. So, do you want us to move it? Hello, welcome back to the Fabrian Pan podcast. Hey! It's the final part of this week's episode. Pod 160 sponsored by JCIS, the Global Research and Brand Consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com. We will. Good. And vector printing for all your print and embroidery needs, whatever they may be, including festive ones, I guess. People want festive-- One if they do gas tailor t-shirts for us. They won't get in due garages. Yeah, it's a great idea. Anyway, do you reckon they did that? I tell you what, if we can get hold of one of the original garages t-shirts, we could do a run of them. I mean, it wouldn't be out of context. It wouldn't really-- I think they'd sell it. They'd sell it, you know. Right, yeah. It's a great idea. So, literally, as many as are EPPP t-shirts. Which are you three? Yeah. We're just doing my parent carriage. And vector-- their website is vector.co.uk and that's vector with her. Okay. Good. Okay. So, the next game for Palace is Away at Stoke, where we won last season, with a very, very good win, two won win. This season, I feel, might be a bit trickier because Stoke are-- well, they're playing fantastic Robon and they're really progressing. They are. They've got some really good players. But the interesting thing is, actually, my company are based in the game. The interesting thing is, actually, my company are based in Stafford. We're based in Utahxeter, so that's quite close to Stoke. And I've got quite a few colleagues who are Stoke fans. And some of them-- like, the majority of them said that they're so inconsistent at the moment. Okay. The game against West Ham, where West Ham were missing some players-- like, missing key players. They just couldn't score. And so, he reckoned that Palace might actually end up getting another result. Really? They seem to be quite strong. They beat City to the audio a day, didn't they? They're fairly good. They're sort of doing what we want to do. They're getting away from the classic Stoke play of quite direct. They're spending a lot of money with their before-one players. And they seem to be evolving quite quickly, didn't they? Well, yeah. You know, the team that size likes to be chicarian has Bojan in their team. Like, they're not the players that we archetypedly would have associated with Stoke, but they've still got the strong core that they've always had with players like, who then sure cross at the back. You know, it's never an easy game up there. And Manchester City found that they've added some sort of pace and flair and sort of attacking intent to that solid base. But they're still a difficult team to play against. And I think we'll not get as much mileage from sort of set pieces and those types of opportunities against them as we will do against other teams, because there are two giants in the middle. They're always ready to head everything out. So it needs to be a little bit more intelligent. But there's space to play against them in. You know, City were particularly terrible. I mean, City without Vincent Kompany this year, look, it's like night and day between how good they are within that team and how bad they are when he's injured. And again, in that match, they looked at sort of sixes and sevens, and Stoke showed that if you make basic defensive errors, they'll punish you. And we don't tend to make the type of, which is great to say, considering comparing ourselves to the team that's probably going to win the league. But we tend not to make the sort of mistakes that City do when the company is not in that defense and when having to deal with like sort of main goal or an automated in their first choices. I think it will be a tight game again up there. And it will be probably the old goal that ends up deciding it. I feel it might be quite similar to the Everton game, which is where I think we'll be on the back foot for periods. I think Mark Hughes will know that the threats coming down the flanks as well, and I think we'll try to show Zarr, you know, definitely. Because as much as I don't like Mark Hughes, he's quite clever. But they try, you know what though? They tried to play that kind of game against us last time, didn't they? And it didn't work because he ended up with Glenn Murray. You know, we went a bit more direct and Glenn Murray nodded it on. For a will, yeah. And he actually won the penalty. He won the penalty. So I think it's going to be interesting because it'll be, you know, it's one of those things where I think Palace can change and adapt their game as much as Stoke would to us. Pardu loves playing some surprises. Would you, if you guys were Pardu, would you play the same team that started on Saturday against Southampton? Or like the Everton game, in a change it was forced because of suspension. Would you bring in someone like, like Zeddinac or Leidley? Is it a kind of game for someone like that? Or would you keep it the same? I guess the question is, who would you drop for Leidley? Obviously Wilf was suspended for the Everton game, so that's why he came in. I'm not sure, I think the thing, the biggest risk for us is that you've got players like On Out of Itch and Shakiri and Bojan, and these are players that love getting the ball and running. You know, they're essentially like the equivalent of Wilf and Yannick, but in a more central way. And I think that that is probably the biggest risk that we're playing, that you've got to kind of shore up against that. But then again, we've got McArthur and Kebai and, you know, we've spoken about Kebai playing a slightly more deep role. But they're very good at that. So it's going to be, I think, I don't know, it's tough, isn't it? It's going to be difficult to predict. We might see McArthur and Kebai less going forward. I guess if you have got a lot of such gear in that lot, they're going to have more. He's not going to play recently, I don't know if he's back in time. But even without him, they've got Afroly, they've got Bojan. It's almost like I'm reading from their team sheet from the last match. They've got Van Ginkle. So, you know, they've got some decent attacking players and they'll show some decent intent. I don't see them being any better than they, an Everton, for example, who played against Riesen. I don't think they'll be quite as dynamic as them in the final third. And I think we've got enough to get either a draw or a win up there. It's just about making sure that you don't make any mistakes and set pieces and that you actually try and get them down the flanks. Because I don't rate their full backs particularly highly. I don't mean they're bad, but, you know, I'm not the hugest fan of Glenn Johnson. Well, I don't think anyone is. I think that Johnson is. Well, you'd imagine so. This policy doesn't seem to make, that's the thing about this person. They don't seem to make massive mistakes. They're always in games, even under pressure. That's the individual mistake, but that's human error, you know. They don't go missing, you know. I don't think the team's, I don't think we've gone out there and been so tactically inept or the whole team was not performed. We're always in there. We're always in there with a shower. I think that's our biggest strength. We're helped by the fact that you've got characters throughout the whole side. We keep laboring the point, but people like Delaney are the kind of people that will hold teammates to a certain standard. If you're not switched on and you're not paying attention, they'll let you know, ultimately. But I think it helps for Palace that we have this strong spine of a side again. We know that we've got Delaney, we've got Dan, we've got all the right through the middle, Kebain McArthur, up front you've got Wickham. That's a really strong spine, and if you can build on that, then we've got the tools that you need to break down a team like Stoke. They're going to be difficult because I think since Shawcross has come back, they haven't conceded. Right, good to stand. But they'll be worried about Palace. Everyone talks about how Palace are good away from Palace. They're going to be worried about us, especially during last season's result. And if you can keep them quite for half an hour or so, then... So, I mean, we've got, after then we've got some winnable games coming up, but a point of stoke, are you happy with that? Yeah, I think so. I think if you've got the choice of going for three... No, but I'm saying, given her how they've been playing this season... They've got a dangerous front for, I think, a point of stoke would be a good result. It's a stadium that not that many teams come away from with a win. I know we did last season, but it's not happening. Especially at the moment. Yeah, exactly. Okay, that's the end of this podcast. Next week is the Christmas podcast. Oh, really? With a very special guest as well. Thanks, guys. Not you. Thanks, guys. So, that's it. Next time you'll be hearing from us, it'll be the Christmas podcast. Well, I'm forward to that. So, Rob, thanks for joining us. As always, thank you. Thank you very much for asking me back. You were. You keep going back on. Bad penny, you know. And Andy. Well, thanks for being here. That was my house. I didn't get that much choice. I didn't have any point. Listeners, we will be with you next week for the Christmas podcast. So, here you go. All right. All right. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...and the FYP boys are getting into the festive spirit with just one more Palace game until December 25th. They look back at the fantastic win over Southampton as ask if the Eagles are now on the same level as the Saints? They also chat over the investment latest and preview Saturday's trip to Stoke as well as answering your questions and travelling back in time for In This Week.
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