As the summer transfer window approaches, Crystal Palace chairman, Steve Parish, and first-team manager, Oliver Glasner, will need to be doing some serious work behind the scenes to ensure that the South London outfit keep hold of their major stars.
The 2023/24 season under Roy Hodgson was nothing short of a disaster, and with just 10 games left to go, the Eagles find themselves languishing in 14th position.
For the likes of Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Marc Guehi, who perhaps have aspirations of bigger and better things as well as regular international call-ups, that’s hardly likely to be good enough to satiate their professional desires.
Eberechi Eze will have to wait to leave Crystal Palace
Those three players could grace any team in the Premier League, and both Parish and Glasner will understand that.
It may be that, in fact, the damage has already been done under Hodgson and that players have decided that their futures lie elsewhere.
Journalist Graeme Bailey certainly thinks so.
“Eze is an interesting one, he really is. I can see he really is ready to go but I think Eze might have to wait another summer to get out,” he said to We Are Palace.
“They can’t afford to sell their crown jewels. If one does go, it’s likely to be Olise but if Eze did want to go, he’s got a lot of interest.”
There does seem to be an air of inevitability about this brilliant Palace team being broken up in the near future, though the South Londoners can be assured that in Glasner they have one of the game’s brightest minds so the first-team is in good hands.
It’s vital that the club’s academy continues to churn out top quality young players that can populate the senior side for years to come too.
Whilst Palace might have always been seen as a selling club, if they’re able to find a solid balance under Glasner, there’s no reason why Selhurst Park won’t be seen as a good place in which to continue one’s footballing education over the next few years.