[FM23-24] How Is Our Trophy Case Still Empty - Crystal Palace

[keeper#1]

34 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Charlie Patino is a class signing. He is my midfield General at Preston. Except I got him on a Bosman.

Very Busy Transfer Window.

I also have a hard time keeping up with the Top 6 competitively in matches because of the gap in quality. Do you find the same?

If I play defensively I lose 1-2 to 0. Play more offensively we lose 5-0!

I have the exact same problem with the Big Six. 

[Jogo Bonito]

Early days, but after a difficult start that's two good results on the bounce. Hopefully you can keep them in and around the European spots.

Sorry to see you sell Eze, I would have loved to see him there until you collect that first elusive trophy. But hopefully the wheeling and dealing will be the right path to take.

[keeper#1]

5 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Early days, but after a difficult start that's two good results on the bounce. Hopefully you can keep them in and around the European spots.

Sorry to see you sell Eze, I would have loved to see him there until you collect that first elusive trophy. But hopefully the wheeling and dealing will be the right path to take.

Eze is a player that I needed to sell in order to fund other purchases to help build depth at the club.  I could have one Eze or Parrott and Lankshear to have depth at center forward behind Dembele.  It was a tough choice. 

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season Update #2 - Gonna Fly Now

 

I'm a Philly guy.  Looking through the Palace ownership group is Josh Harris who is the majority owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team so there is a Philly connection.  The Palace is starting to kick on and fire on all cylinders.

Damn Villa, the only team standing in the way of a perfect stretch of form between the September and October International Breaks.  The loss to Villa was understandable.  It was in the Carabao Cup - a competition that we do not view as important.  We have more important Europa League matches to worry about.  In that match, we played, primarily, a reserve lineup and almost escaped with the victory.  The draw to Villa was in the league but Villa outplayed us on the whole of match.  We jumped early and then conceded right away.  After that, Villa had most of the play and we were lucky to escape with a draw.  Bournemouth was torn apart by Troy Parrott, who scored a pair of second half goals.  West Ham jumped on us early before we completely dominated the last 15 minutes of the match scoring three goals including two in stoppage time.  I'm very proud of our effort in the Manchester United match.  We led the entire way and every time United thought they had a way back into the match - we scored a goal to extend the lead back to two goals.  In Europe, we have been dominant.  The boys dispatched Fenerbahce and Osijek with relative ease and put us in a great position just two matches into the long eight-match league phase.

  

If the season ended today, we would be in the Champions League.  But the season doesn't end today and we need to maintain this form throughout the season to get into the Champions League.  I expect us to slide back down the table and into the Europa League/Conference conversation.  We are scoring a great clip - 20 goals in just nine matches.  I'm not a fan of the 12 goals allowed but three of those were in the Manchester United match and if you take that match out of the mix, we've allowed just nine goals in eight matches which is more in-line with what I want.

We are one of six teams that have won both of their first two Europa League matches.  Though, I will say that Emmen are the surprise squad in that six-team group. Later in the League Phase, we have matches against both Roma and Sporting which could go a long way in determining who stays in the Top 8 and earns a first round bye and who falls into the opening knockout round for places 9-24.

Dembele is still doing the lionshare of the goalscoring with a team-leading 10 goals but Alex Scott (4 goals) and Troy Parrott (3 goals) are helping to provide from some depth.  Everyone on the roster, except for two players, has seen the pitch already this season.  Hopefully, I can keep this level of load management going throughout the season.  It's helping our form and keeping players out of the physio's office.

Edited July 2, 2023 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season Update #3 - OHHHHH, We're Halfway There

We are halfway through the league season and my forwards, even with a good amount of squad rotation, are finding their way back into the physio's office with a variety of sprains, strains, and injuries.

We've had a lot of matches over the last two months.  By December, more and more teams, especially, those in the middle to bottom half of the table are starting to sit back against us.  Use our counter attacking style against us by forcing us to attack.  We've started to incorporate more of high pressing style in these matches.  Combine a subtle tactical switch and injuries and you get our December form.  Not a lot of league goals leading to losses and draws unless we are playing the worst of the worst in the league like Nottingham Forest.  Contrast that with our Europa League form where teams don't have a "tactical book" on us yet and we are just smashing everyone.  Sporting is the only team to take points from us with a 3-3 draw.  Pizen and Kilmarnock tried to go toe-to-toe against us and got badly burned.  

 

We are overperforming our expected stats.  We should be midtable but are battling for a place in Europe again. It's going to be a tough battle with 13 teams battling for the seven spots in Europe.  I expect some of the teams like Leeds, Everton, and Villa to drop off as the second half of the season kicks off while teams like Brighton and Manchester City rebound and make a move up the table.  The relegation battle is six teams for three spots.  Brentford have sort of taken over the traditional Crystal Palace role: no realistic chance of Europe while no realistic chance of relegation.  It's not even Christmas and they could already be in "play out the string mode."

We have already clinched a spot in the knockout rounds.  We need just one more point in the January league matches to clinch a spot in the top eight and go straight into the round of 16.  Our final two league phase matches are against Qurabag (H, 28th place) and Roma (A, 9th place).  We should be able to make the top eight without much problem given our offensive outputs thus far.

The Troy Parrott signing has proven to be very important.  Moussa Dembele, after a great August-early October, is in the middle of his second 6-8 week stint in the physio's office.  He still has a team-high 10 goals but Parrott is close to matching him with nine goals of his own.  I've found a good secondary attacking line with Dembele out featuring Olise on the right, Parrott on the left and Asprilla in the middle.  Asprilla is a great passer of the ball and can unlock a defense and find Parrott streaking down the left side behind the defensive line.  Everybody in the senior squad has seen playing time except the third string goalkeeper.  Cheick Doucoure has been another injury problem but Charlie Patino has stepped up in his absence to play the base of the midfield triangle.  Alex Scott has filled the role vacated by Ebere Eze as the goalscoring midfielder.  Scott has six goals and four assists in all competitions.  We could use some more depth and maybe I can find some low cost depth options in the January transfer window but I'm going to go out and break the bank on a signing.

[Jogo Bonito]

A good season again here in South London, despite the absence(s) of Dembele. Hopefully you'll stay in contention for the PL golden spots and claim a form of European football again from that. But your adventure in Europe is going very well already, so who knows what that might bring.

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season Update #4 - Deep Cover

My goal in January was to quickly move in and create some forward depth where, after a string of injuries, it was becoming a weakness for us.  Just a couple of injuries and we were forced to play the same guys every match and when you are playing two matches a week - they get real tired real quick.  I moved quick and made two signings - one loan and one permament.

Riyad Mahrez was on the outs at Wolves and not getting a lot of playing time.  I could give him playing time as a rotation option and I could offer him playing time in a European competition something that Wolves could not offer.  Plus, he was inexpensive at only 1.9 million (I don't expect that he will reach the 50 games played clause) and the contract is only for 1.5 seasons.  Also, he can play on both wings which provides depth on both sides.  He's the perfect bridge to the younger talent that we have out on loan this season and likely next season.

The US's new number 9 comes in to provide deep depth at center forward.  The other options were too expensive to bring in on a transfer fee, wanted too much money or wanted too much money.  If we don't play him and Arsenal gets upset, they can't recall him.  Balgoun is our ultimate deep cover option at center forward.  Someone who can do just enough in short stints or start against weaker opponents and we aren't in a dire situation with a National League level player in the lineup.

 

Toward in the end of the January window, Dortmund came in and activated Scott's 42.5 million pound release clause.  We weren't ready to lose him and had to scramble to come up with a contract extension with a higher release clause and hope that he would agree to it.  Luckily, he agreed to a new contract through the end of the 2029 season and we were able to boost to release clause to 7t million pounds while restricting it to clubs in Champions League.  Why did we do this?

Scott is the U21 England Men's Player of the Year with our home-grown Malcom Ebiowei coming in second for the award.  These are two players that the club will be built around over the next few seasons.  We just need to hold to them.

Our league form as been a slog.  The signings along the forward line were needed as you can see with the three match stretch between Christmas and New Years.  Our defense wasn't great but we really struggled to generate offense in those matches.  Once, we re-built that depth and got our matches to be scheduled a bit further apart, we returned to the solid defense and scoring to beat up on our opposition.  Playing competition that was a step below us helped a little too.  In Europe, we smashed our last two league phase opponents.  The Qarabag win clinched the top eight and a opening round bye in the knockout phase.  We played a complete backup XI against Roma and earned a 2-1 victory which knocked them out of the top eight.  Sorry, Mourinho.

 

Sitting in 8th place and needing a good run of form to kick back into the top 7.  The Manchester City resurgence was expected.  Someone is going to be on the outside looking in at Europe next season.  We need to ensure that it is not us.

 

[Hootieleece]

You have to love when the backups win in Europe!

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season Update #5 - The Song Remains The Same

 

We had a decent last four months of the season.  Our trip through the Europa League Knockout Stages was about as hard as it could be.  We got rematches in the Round of 16 (against Fenerbahce) AND Semifinals (against Sporting).  The quarterfinal match was 1v2 matchup from the League Phase against Atalanta.  We found a way to navigate it all....almost.  Sporting scored in the 80th minute of the second leg which turned out to be the deciding goal in 2-1 aggregate result.  Sporting went on to defeat Real Betis in the final.  Our league form, as a result, was very up and down.  Only we could find a way to lose to Liverpool, 5-0, and Chelsea, 2-0, only to turn around draw with Newcastle and defeat Manchester City, 5-2.   Our four match winning streak to close the season proved to be vital when you look at the end of season table.

  

We finished a very overperforming 6th place and earned ourselves another trip into the Europa League.  Both the offense and defense way overperformed.  I took a look "under the hood" to see how this overperfomance occurred. 

We were absolutely lethal in front of the net.  All of the other offensive stats had us sitting squarely in the middle of the table.  However, our 12% shot conversation rate had us on part with league champion Liverpool.  We were the masters of the 1-0 victory or 2-1 victory because we turned both of our shots on target into goals.  Our defensive stats were just as bad - usually sitting in the middle or the bottom half of the table.  But, one man led to the overperformance in that category.

Defender of the Year and Player of the Year - GK Dominik Livakovic: Livakovic was responsible for +9.22 of +12 xGA.  He was beast in the net.  He had 17 clean sheets in his 55 appearances for the club in all competitions.  He was hung out to dry on numerous occasions by our leaky defense but kept us in just about every match this season.  I saw why Croatia was able to reach the 2024 World Cup Final.  Livakovic can turn a draw into a win or a loss into a draw by his superior goalkeeping.

Midfielder of the Year - CM Alex Scott: Alex Scott was a breakthrough talent this season.  He won the England U21 Player of the Year honor in January and just kicked on from there.  He is a prolific goalscorer from the midfielder as he had 12 goals which was third best on the squad while chipping in with nine assists.  He also ranked near the top of the squad in key passes/90 and chances created/90.  Once the season ended, I made it a priority to resign him to another deal which would get rid of his minimum release clause.  I don't want to lose him especially on an all-cash transfer.  I want a piece of future transfer fees as well.  He is a great talent and glad he is part of our squad.

Forward of the Year - CF Moussa Dembele: Dembele had a tough season with injuries.  Before the injuries started, he was in great form and scored 10 goals before the calendar turned to November.  From November-May, he only scored eight goals which caused our offense to find other sources of goals.  We were able to mix and match lineups in his repeated absences.  We are a different team with Dembele in the lineup.  We can put players in their more natural positions and Dembele is a true line leader.  It wasn't an issue with overuse or overtraining.  He just suffered a lot of dings and bumps and bruises throughout the season.  It could be an issue of getting older.  We will see if repeats itself next season or if it was more of one-off season issue.

[Jogo Bonito]

Another fabulous season for The Eagles. Europe again, can't complain about that. 

Glad to see Scott has worked out for you. Still need a back-up for Dembele though it seems. How about one of the Arsenal pair, Balogun or Nketiah? They seem realistic targets, in fact I thought they may get one of them IRL.

[keeper#1]

Tried to sign Balogun on a free over the summer but he chose to go to Valencia instead. Don’t worry - I found a backup though. 

[Hootieleece]

Good season! Great job getting European Football. It is good to see someone realistically building up a team to be competitive with the big boys of the Premier League.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Hootieleece
added words I forgot

[Rikulec]

As above, kudos for making your save as realistic as possible, I don't think I'd be able to play this way given all the limitations and gamey things in FM. Keep up the good work!

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update #1 - Trading Places

 

Another summer transfer window is in the books and that means a lot of comings and goings.

Transfers Out

Most of the players heading out the door are players on our U18 and U21 teams to a variety of clubs on loan.  We had very few true transfers out the door but the players who did leave left some big holes for us to fill.  Right back Killian Sildillia was the first player to depart for greener pastures at Manchester City.  This was a disappointing loss because we had finished above Manchester City each of the last two seasons but we don't have the financial backing that City have.  Left back Tyrick Mitchell was the next to move on.  This time, he moves across town to Arsenal.  Again, this was purely a financial move.  Next, we lost rotational center back Anel Ahmedhodzic.  He wanted more playing than we could offer because he was blocked, to a degree, by Marc Guehi.  Both players play in a similar style which, at times, made it difficult to create an ideal center back pairing.  Another rotational piece Tom Davies departed the club for Burnley.  Later in the window, we lost depth options in Nathan Baxter and Asher Agbinone.

Transfers In

We brought in six new faces this window all with varying levels of expectations.  The first player brought in was destroyer center back Kevin Danso from Lens for 27 million pounds.  He is a pure kick the crap out of the opposition center back which is exactly what we need next to more ball playing center back in Marc Guehi.  We went over to West Ham to find a right back replacement in Ben Johnson.  Johnson brings a little more pace and creativity to the position and hopefully will be able to ping some crosses into our forwards to set up some goals while having the ability to track back on defense.  Center back Max Kilman is a replacement for the rotational center back position.  He is just a step below both Guehi and Danso so he can backup both positions while moving the aging Chris Smalling to a 4th center back role going forward.  We added some grit and spit to the midfield by signing American midfielder Tyler Adams.  Adams loves to mix it up in the midfield and our midfield was lacking an enforcer.  Adams will be that enforcer in a box-to-box role.  I've had my eye on center forward Lassina Traore for a long time but Shakhtar's valuation never lined up with my valuation of his services until now.  He comes over for 15 million pounds and will push Dembele at the center forward position.  He is also a natural replacement for Dembele should Dembele not agree to a new contract during the season and departs the club on a free.  I've also had my eye of up and coming English goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu at Southampton.  I wanted to sign him last season but Southampton was in the Premier League and wanted close to 50 million pounds.  Now, Southampton have been relegated to the Championship and the club, now, only wants 13.5 million for him.  Gazunu will be our mid-week match goalkeeper both domestically and in Europe.

A good offseason led us into a tough opening four-match stretch in the Premier League.  We had an easy home opener against Leicester before entering a tough three-match stretch against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.  City and Arsenal picked apart our new defensive line while we held on a famous victory against Liverpool.

Not surprisingly, we are in the middle of the table early in the season.

 

[Hootieleece]

Gavin Bazunu is a great keeper. I had him in my Preston save until I couldn't give him European Football and he left for Newcastle. He probably kept us in the Premier League for two Seasons and won us an FA Cup!

Southhampton has become a yo-yo club in my save and a great place to find players like Liverpool used to do IRL. (Mane, Van Dijk, and others)

 

[keeper#1]

Southampton is a yo-yo club in my save as well.

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update #2 - The Comeback Kids

We are gaining a reputation of being in the Comeback Kids of the 2025-26 season.  We are just stealing points in matches where do not deserve to get any points especially in our matches after we return from the Europa League.  Twice, we have stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.  First, we score three goals in last 10 minutes plus stoppage time to turn a 0-1 scoreline into a 3-1 victory against Aston Villa.  In October, we traveled to Sunderland only to fall behind 0-1.  Davy Klassen played the role of hero with two goals in six minutes to reverse that scoreline into a 2-1 victory.  That's a huge six points saved by the Comeback Kids of Crystal Palace.  They don't stop until the referee blows his whistle for full time.  The club has only tasted defeat twice in the last two months and none of the defeats have come in the Premier League.  We've lost to Shakhtar 0-1 in the Europa League when we played most of the match a man down and to Chelsea in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup.

 

Right now, we are the most unlikely leaders of the Premier League as we hold a slim one point lead over Manchester United.  Our two losses came back in August when we traveled to the Emirates and the Ethiad.  Since then, we have only dropped points to Brighton, who caught us coming back from Europe and we able to stop any last minutes heroics.  We lead the league but only have a +6 goal difference so we are winning by the slimmest of margins.  Liver pool, Arsenal and Manchester City are all our polar opposites.  They should be at the top of the table instead they are all struggling in the middle of the pack.  I really doubt we can keep up these last minutes heroics all season.  The odds are long to win the title but we could be making our first real push at Champions League competition next season IF we continue on our run of form.

 

Everybody is getting minutes and are contributing when they step on the pitch.  All except Moussa Dembele who has lost the ability to find the net.  He could quickly lose his starting spot to the red hot Lassina Traore, who is scoring at 1.48 goals/90 minutes clip.  The defense is starting to gel and Bazunu and Livakovic are settling into their roles as weekday match keeper (Bazunu) and weekend match keeper (Livakovic) quite well.  The only payers who have seen a lot of playing time are U21 squad player Zach March, and the aging Riyad Mahrez and Chris Smalling but both players are willing to take on smaller roles while they attend coaching courses as a potential transition into the U18 coaching setup in the coming years.

First Achievement Unlocked

The achievement only reads "International Team" not a top international team or anything like that.  So, when Javorn Joseph stepped on the pitch for the Antigua and Barbuda national team, he unlocked our first achievement of the save.  An unlikely player unlocking an achievement.  That's what makes a save like this one fun.

 

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update #3 - Soaring High

Look at that run of form by Crystal Palace.  Just mowing everyone down in the league and putting serious hurtings on clubs in the Europa League.  We have been one of the best EPL squads in the first half of the season.  The only blips were a draw to Newcastle and a thrashing at the hands of Tottenham.  Like September and October, we have been able to give everyone playing time and keeping everyone (for the most part) happy.  10 different goal scorers over the two months.  The defense has been putting the opposition in a strait jacket allowing zero or one goal in every match put the Tottenham mess.  The wins that I enjoyed the most over the last two months: pounding Manchester United 3-0 and laying the wood to Maccabi Tel Aviv 6-0 in the Europa League.  Great play by the boys in this part of the season.  Let's keep the train rolling through the second half of the season.

 

Liverpool have started to play like Liverpool and have moved into a tie on points with us at the top of the table.  Liverpool hold the tiebreaker against us due to their vastly superior goal differential.  Arsenal and Manchester City still sit in the middle of the table and are underperforming their xG and xGPoints.  We could see some shaking up in the top of the table with some overperforming clubs sliding down the table as they regress to the mean and some underperforming clubs moving up the table as they improve to the mean.  The bottom of the table looks set with Burnley and Middlesbrough all but gone and Sunderland look to join them barring some massive improvement on their part in the second half of the season.

Player of the first half of the season has to be midfielder Alex Scott.  Scott leads the squad with eight assists and has chipped in five goals as well.  He has the potential to put up a 10+ goal 10+ assist season.  Lassina Traore has been lethal in front of the net with a team-high 14 goals on an xG of just under 8.50.  Moussa Dembele is starting to find the net as well and has a second best 11 goals.  Kevin Danso has proven to the defensive enforcer that we had hoped he would be.  Winning 80% of his tackles and 88% of his headers.  He allows Marc Guehi to get forward because he knows that Danso will cover up if he can not track back in enough time.  A great first half team performance by everyone. 

 

[Rikulec]

That's a great first half of the season.

[Jogo Bonito]

Wow, incredible form! Really soaring high indeed. Was not expecting Man City and Arsenal to be where they are as it's only 2025, but forget them and hopefully you will seal a CL spot or even more...

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update #4 - Still Flying High

Another month in the books and it was a another very successful month.  The squad only lost one match and that was a very tough cup draw against Liverpool.  We held the lead 2-1 before folding the dying minutes to fall 3-2.  We held our own against Manchester City thanks to an Alex Scott strike and Brighton played us tough to a road draw.  Every other match was a walk in the park.  We finished in the top eight in the Europa League for the second straight season.  Hopefully, we avoid a repeat of last season where we played clubs that we played in the league phase again in the knockout phase.

 

We are locked in a tight battle with Liverpool for the top spot on the table.  It's a slim one point lead.  Both squads feature top defenses but Liverpool have a high-flying offense (74 goals scored - almost three goals per match) compared to our 42 goals (1.68 per match).  The two clubs have put some distance between themselves and the rest of the Premier League clubs.  It's going to be a tough battle for the European slots as winter turns into spring.  The bottom of the table is looking set with Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Burnley all pegged for relegation.

As a top eight finisher, we can't draw any of the really tough clubs and among the 9th-24th place clubs, we played SV Reid, Trabzonspor, and Rangers.  I don't want to see them in the knockout phases.  The toughest Round of 16 draws would be PSV, Porto, Marseille and Valencia.  We should be able to handle just about any of the other clubs that made the playoff phase.

We lost two players in the January transfer window.  Defender Chris Richards, who made it clear that he was not going to sign a new contract before his current contract expires in 2027, left for Dortmund.  I signed Davy Klassen to a contract extension in the fall but that did not stop Nice from coming in and wanting to sign him on a transfer deal.  Klassen moves to Nice and we recall Jobe Bellingham from his loan deal to replace him.  To replace Richards, we were able to sign Elias Jelert from Kobenhaven.  Jelert, like Ben Johnson, can play both wing-back positions and will be the primary back-up at right-back.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Wow, more of the same! Making a serious challenge on both fronts, keep it going Sir!

[keeper#1]

12 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Wow, more of the same! Making a serious challenge on both fronts, keep it going Sir!

I know.  Can we keep it up for three more months?

[Jogo Bonito]

Just now, keeper#1 said:

I know.  Can we keep it up for three more months?

Absolutely yes! 

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update #5 - Air Is Getting Thin

The air keeps getting thinner for the Eagles at Crystal Place.  They keeping winning and winning and putting some serious distance between themselves and 3rd place.  Only Newcastle, who caught us in between matches against PSV, were able to defeat us in February or March.  Manchester City were able to take points from us as well but everything was a win mostly in grind it out fashion.  The lone exceptions was the two-legged tie against PSV.  We smashed them in The Netherlands and that was enough to allow us to play the backups in the home match.  A 6-2 aggregate victory earned us a quarterfinal matchup with Juventus.  Our chances of making the Champions League is much higher via qualification through the league than through the Europa League title.  So, Juventus will likely see more rotation pieces than our starters.  The injury bug is starting to bite players in the squad again.  Our defense is getting thread bare with a collection of smaller injuries but the forward line took a big hit right after the transfer window closed and I couldn't recall anyone from loan.

I've lost the ability to rotate Moussa Dembele and Lassina Traore and keep them both fresh.  Dembele will have take on the brunt of the scoring duties for the rest of the season while I rotate just players like Facundo Torres and Troy Parrott into the center forward position.

 

We are still defying the odds and going win-for-win with Liverpool.  The two clubs have put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack.  It is a tight four-team race between ourselves and Liverpool just separated by only three points with Newcastle and Manchester City lurking just behind that second group.  The relegation clubs are pretty much set.  It's just a question of getting enough matches in the books until Sunderland and Middlesbrough get a 'R' next to their name like Burnley.

We are on pace to get everyone 1,000 minutes for the season.  The lone exceptions will be the often injured Michael Olise, the aging Riyad Mahrez and Chris Smalling (who will be retiring at the end of the season) and the recently transferred in Elias Jelert.

Just seven league matches remain and it's a tough road in:

Will Everton roll over and give us three points to make it harder for rivals Liverpool to win the title?  Our title chances will come down to the four-match stretch where we face Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in a three-week span.

Liverpool have just five matches remaining and they have a much easier road home than we do.  But they could have more Champions League fixtures sprinkled into their run in as they defeated Milan 6-2 in the opening leg of the quarterfinal.

[Jogo Bonito]

You have some tough matches in there, but form over the whole season indicates you can do this. 

Rumour has it that instead of the on-pitch celebrations usually seen in FM, yours would be some video of you swinging from the palace chandeliers 

[Rikulec]

On 14/07/2023 at 18:22, keeper#1 said:

2025-26 Season Update #5 - Air Is Getting Thin

The air keeps getting thinner for the Eagles at Crystal Place.  They keeping winning and winning and putting some serious distance between themselves and 3rd place.  Only Newcastle, who caught us in between matches against PSV, were able to defeat us in February or March.  Manchester City were able to take points from us as well but everything was a win mostly in grind it out fashion.  The lone exceptions was the two-legged tie against PSV.  We smashed them in The Netherlands and that was enough to allow us to play the backups in the home match.  A 6-2 aggregate victory earned us a quarterfinal matchup with Juventus.  Our chances of making the Champions League is much higher via qualification through the league than through the Europa League title.  So, Juventus will likely see more rotation pieces than our starters.  The injury bug is starting to bite players in the squad again.  Our defense is getting thread bare with a collection of smaller injuries but the forward line took a big hit right after the transfer window closed and I couldn't recall anyone from loan.

I've lost the ability to rotate Moussa Dembele and Lassina Traore and keep them both fresh.  Dembele will have take on the brunt of the scoring duties for the rest of the season while I rotate just players like Facundo Torres and Troy Parrott into the center forward position.

 

We are still defying the odds and going win-for-win with Liverpool.  The two clubs have put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack.  It is a tight four-team race between ourselves and Liverpool just separated by only three points with Newcastle and Manchester City lurking just behind that second group.  The relegation clubs are pretty much set.  It's just a question of getting enough matches in the books until Sunderland and Middlesbrough get a 'R' next to their name like Burnley.

We are on pace to get everyone 1,000 minutes for the season.  The lone exceptions will be the often injured Michael Olise, the aging Riyad Mahrez and Chris Smalling (who will be retiring at the end of the season) and the recently transferred in Elias Jelert.

Just seven league matches remain and it's a tough road in:

Will Everton roll over and give us three points to make it harder for rivals Liverpool to win the title?  Our title chances will come down to the four-match stretch where we face Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in a three-week span.

Liverpool have just five matches remaining and they have a much easier road home than we do.  But they could have more Champions League fixtures sprinkled into their run in as they defeated Milan 6-2 in the opening leg of the quarterfinal.

You have a tough run-in, but Liverpool's doesn't look that easy either. Fingers crossed for you!

[acidmonkey]

Fingers crossed you can do it! got to win the trip to Liverpool 

[keeper#1]

I'll have an update tomorrow (if the outdoor weather cooperates) or Monday.

[karanhsingh]

Wow just had a look here, what a season so far! Hope you can bring it home. 

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season Update - Fight to the Finish

It turned into a three-team fight to the finish for the 2026 Premier League title

Crystal Palace

Liverpool

Chelsea

We struggled down the stretch.  We gave away the Europa League glory and put all of our eggs into the Premier League title basket.  We grinded out a 1-0 win over Everton but running into a wall playing Chelsea-Arsenal-Manchester United-Liverpool all in a row.  We found a way to defeat Manchester United but that was it.  We drew against Arsenal and lost against both title contenders - Liverpool and Chelsea.  We rebounded against Aston Villa before falling in the last match of the season against Wolves.  Liverpool also struggled as they were battling on two fronts as well.  They had a shock lost to Leeds before getting manhandled by Manchester City.  They crashed out of the Champions League when their defense completely vanished in the second leg against Napoli.  A win against us should have given them the momentum but it was quickly lost with a draw to Tottenham and a loss to an inspired Everton squad who did not want to see them win the title.  They finished the season with a win over Brighton.  Chelsea roared into the title race winning six of their last seven matches with their only blemish being a draw to Arsenal.  They beat both title contenders along the way.  With that in mind, how did the final table shake out?

The Chelsea draw against Arsenal was the difference.  It gave us enough of a lead over Chelsea that their red hot form could not catch us.  We won the league!  It was a tough fight with every point during the season having an impact on the final outcome.  We had done enough especially with our form early in the season to hold off the challengers and finally lift the trophy at Selhurst Park.

We played the entire season on a knife edge so xG over-performance had a massive impact on our xPoints.  We had many goals, early in the season, that made the difference between a win and draw or a draw and loss.  Those points add up over a season.  They add up even more when you do not give up similar results on the opposite end.  Those results moved us up from the bottom end of the European places to the league title.  

Defender of the Year - CB Kevin Danso: Danso was brought for one reason - to be an enforcer on defense.  He was just that.  He dominated in the air by winning 85% of his headers.  He won 77% of his tackles.  He is a smart defender as well when he picked off close to four passes per match.  A calming influence at the back and would always make a simple pass to a more creative player to start our attacks.  A great find and, I learned during the season, he was a record buy of an Austrian player.

Midfielder and Player of the Year - CM Alex Scott: The next great English midfielder plays for Crystal Palace and will be playing for us for the foreseeable future.  He was able to have that double-double season that I hoped he would have when we were at the midway point.  He was tied for third on the team with 11 goals and second on the squad with 10 assists.  If he were to get to 15 goals and 15 assists, he would be one of the best players in the world and I think he can reach that point.

Forward of the Year - CF Moussa Dembele: With the injury to Lassina Traore, I had to lean on Dembele heavily in the second half of the season.  With no ability to recall a center forward that was out on loan, I was back to my 2024-25 load management plan where Troy Parrott or Yaserr Asprilla had to spell Dembele.  Dembele made a lot of that unnecessary with his prolific goalscoring.  28 goals in all competitions including 16 goals in the Premier League which ranked 5th in the league.  It was nice to have two quality center forwards on the 25-man roster this season.

Winning the league title put us in the running for some end of season awards:

I'm finally starting to fill some of the achievements on the achievement hunter grid. 

[Rikulec]

Great job mate. 

[Hootieleece]

Great win! Grinding out the Title like that!

 

[keeper#1]

2 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Great job mate. 

Thank you.  Just 13 more to tick that accomplishment off. 

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Great win! Grinding out the Title like that!

 

Thank you.  A grind is a great description of the title win.

[keeper#1]

It's been an interest knockout phase of the 2026 World Cup

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Many congratulations, they'll be dancing in the streets of, erm, Crystal Palace for sure! Great stuff really, well done indeed.

[karanhsingh]

Incredible - well done!

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Season Update #1 - Building Again

When you are on time, the big clubs take notice of your talent want to make some big offers for your players.  That is exactly what happened this summer transfer window.  But, we scout.  We sign and we rebuild to knock them off again.

I weeded out the loan and free transfers so I could focus on just the cash sales.  There are some big names departing the club.  Facundo Torres departed for Tyneside club Newcastle for over 30 million pounds.  Manchester City came in with a big offer for Yaser Asprilla but I thought they could go higher.  I got them to agree to an 81 million pound deal which can expand to 91 million pounds when Asprilla puts on the jersey again for Columbia.  City wanted to pay the 10 million after 20 appearances.  I negotiated it down to one appearance.  I should have a 10 million pound payday in early September.  Jacob Greaves left for West Ham who could offer him more playing time.  That was more important to him than playing in the Champions League.  Fabian Rieder spent the season on loan at Club Brugge and the club activated the buy option of his loan agreement.  Lastly, we made our first big sale of an academy player as West Ham swooped in for another purchase.

We were forced to rebuild and got younger at the same time.  This will be a rebuilding year for us without question.  We have added a lot of depth on the wings as well added some pieces down the middle.  We used up our initial transfer budget on three purchases.  We activated the foreign club release clause on 19-year old center back Luca Duding from Basel.  Duding can play both the center back and defensive midfielder positions.  I expect he will see more time at center back but defensive mid but could some time at DM when we need another defender on the field to see out a lead.  Brajan Gruda was the lone bright spot on a relegated Mainz squad.  He comes over on a relegation release clause of 11.25 million.  He can play all three forward positions giving us more fluidity along those positions.  Wonderkid Henrik Sverre Heltne Nilsen comes from Molde on an eight million pound fee.  Nilsen can play both wings but is more natural on the left side.  The sales of Torres and Asprilla were used to fund the purchase of four youngsters as well as upgrading the facilities.  We went all over the world to sign these players.  Eastern Europe supplied with left wing/defensive midfield playmaker Peter Stasevic.  from Partizan.  A good well-rounded player who can fill-in at a variety of positions across the pitch.  We went into Denmark to bring in center forward Yakup Dundar who is a great third center forward on the squad with Will Lankshear needing another season out on loan to continue to develop.  We stayed local to bring in center midfielder Brandon Hunter in from Aberdeen.  He has the potential to be a great box-to-box midfielder.  Lastly, we headed into South America to pluck Fabiano Abreu from Palmerias.  Abreu is right winger who has a high ceiling and will see plenty of playing time during the long season.

I thought our good friendly season would lead into a good start to the season.  I was wrong.  We struggled out of the gate in the FA Community Shield with Arsenal before bouncing back against Newcastle in the season opener.  That was our lone win for the month.  A loss to Wolves and United bracketed a pair of draws against Arsenal and West Ham.  A tough set of clubs to open the season.  Hopefully, we will be able to right the ship when we play more of the mid-pack clubs at home and some bottom feeder teams.  

The Champions League draw wasn't kind to us either.  We drew five clubs from the Big Five Leagues and then drew Porto in Portugal, Antwerp in Belgium and Galatasaray at home.  It's going to be tough for us this season in the Champions League.  Hoping for a Top 24 finish and place in the play-in round to the Round of 16 but my expectations are low.

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Season Update #2 - Halfway Through and Stuck In Second Gear

I had planned doing a September-October update but a 30-mile bike ride followed by a two-hour post-ride nap killed those plans.  So, we get a full half-season update.  We have suffered some growing pains in the early months as the offensive failed to click as the new players were getting blooded in and use to the playing style.  Then, the entire starting midfield got injured and we had to use a variety of players to play in matches and give the rotation players now starters a rest.  Playing two matches just about every week is also a challenge.  We have the depth to play two matches a week if we were in the Europa League or Conference but the step up to the Champions League has been a lot higher.  Starters need to play more.  Also discovered that I'm woefully short at the wing back positions and that required some creative rotation as Tyler Adams got to see some time at right back once he got healthy and fit to play.  It's been hard but we are surviving.  With the win over Sheffield United, we are into the semifinals of the Carabao Cup after tight penalty shootout wins over West Ham and Norwich.  A shorter cup run would have been nice just to give the players a rest but it is what is at this point.  We are into the two-leg semi-final against Arsenal.

 

The defense has been rock solid allowing just 14 goals in 19 matches but the offense has been lacking with only 25 goals in 19 matches.  But we are overperforming in both categories.  The defensive overperformance is expected because, I will admit, the defense is good.  The offensive overperformance is a bit concerning because it shows me that the offense just is not creating chances.  We need to make more chances for our offense.  We need to score more goals and take some pressure off our defense.  It's tough to be a team competing for Europe when you just grind out results and need to win 1-0 every night.  Cardiff is all but down and Southampton look to be joining them.  The third spot looks to be a four-club race between Stoke, Brighton. Bournemouth and Leicester.  All the familiar names except for Manchester City, who have become a mid-table club that churns through managers, and Tottenham are in the battle for European places.  West Ham is having a season like we did, last year, battling for the title.  Can they continue their magical run all the way through the winter and spring?

Our European form has been great and 10 points has made the top 24 every season since the move to the single table format.  Matches with Barcelona and Lazio loom in January.  One point from those two matches and we should lock up a top 24 place.  Six points and we could find our way into the top 8 places.

[Bootch]

Wow, you're doing great so far.

Keep up the good work!

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Season Update #3 - Treading Water

A busy month where we needed a lot of squad rotation just to keep everyone somewhat close to fresh.  It was a struggle.  A lot of tough matches in there as well.  A Carabao Cup semifinal with Arsenal which we lost 3-1 over the two legs.  A FA Cup draw against Newcastle which requires at replay in February.  Two Champions League matches against Barcelona and Lazio.  We were tied 3-3 with Barcelona with just 15 minutes to go before our defense completely fell apart en route to a 6-3 loss.  We battled back to earn 1-1 draw against Lazio and earn the one point which I thought we would have needed to advance to the Play-in Round.  In turned out, that a loss would have seen us through.  We would have finished 23rd instead of 19th.  We played only four league matches in January and went 2-1-1.  That was good enough for us to tread water and maintain our place in the battle for the European places.  In the Champions League, we have a play-in round match up with.....facking Barcelona again.  This is the second time in three seasons where we drew a team in the opening knocking round that we played in the league phase.  Just annoying.

  

Defense still showing out this season.  Offense improving but we need the results to improve too.  However, we are still overperforming across the board.  It's going to a battle all winter and spring for the European places.  Cardiff are all but relegated.  Stoke is trying to improve and fight their way out of the relegation zone.  But it's going to be four teams for two relegation slots: Bournemouth, Brighton, Southampton, and Stoke.

Real Madrid came in with a solid bid for central midfielder Cheick Doucoure which we accepted.  He wanted just too much money in his next contract.  So off to a club who is willing to take on his wage demands and we bring in a youngster that we can sell for a profit in a few years.  In comes Lucas Gomez who we have been tracking over the last calendar year to replace Doucoure.

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Top 50 Wonderkids in the World

Palace is home to four of the Top 50 Wonderkids in the World as of March 31, 2027

The Four Wonderkids

 

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Season Update #4 - A Step Back To Take Two Steps Forward?

We spent the last four months of the season was a slog.  We could never gain any momentum and get a good run of form going.  On the flip side, we never had a bad run of form.  We just sort of floated through the last months of the season.  We got knocked out of the Champions League by eventual champions Bayern Munich.  Our run in was a tough one.  We only beat Cardiff and West Ham in the last six matches.  However, the draw against Manchester United proved to be pivotal in the title race.

  

Our draw with Manchester United denied them the title!  West Ham won their first-ever top flight championship in their history.  They were the Crystal Palace of this season.  A high-flying opportunistic offense paired with a tough defense.  You could throw a blanket over the top seven.  Just four points separated first from seventh.  Cardiff proved that they were not cut out for the Premier League.  Only 21 goals scored and 106 goals allowed  on the season.  They were joined in relegation by Stoke and Bournemouth.  Southampton survive on just 29 points.

Defender and Player of the Year - CB Kevin Danso: Danso was our best defender over the course of the season.  He was 80%+ in both tackles won and headers won.  He chipped in with two goals on set piece headers.  He struggles with fitness so we have rotate him out of the lineup when we have a long stretch of two matches per week.  Other than that, he is a top defender.

Midfielder of the Year: CM Alex Scott: Scott did not have the season that he had last season when he had 10+ goals and assists.  Injuries limited his playing time this season and his output dropped to seven goals and eight assists which was tied for the team lead.  Hopefully, next season, he will return to his 2025-26 season form and our offensive output will improve along with our form.

Forward of the Year - CF Moussa Dembele: I thought was finally going to be the season that Dembele did not win this award.  But Lassina Traore had a poor season and Yakup Dundar was getting his feet wet in the Premier League.  Dembele proved to a reliable scorer though he is starting to lose a step.  His offensive output dropped to just 13 goals - still a team-high- but way down from his 28 goals last season.  

We are getting an expansion to Selhurst Park.  We should a stadium with a seating capacity around 35,000 when the expansion is completed.

After the Champions League Final, we were informed that we are getting bumped up from the Europa League to the Champions League for the 2027-28 season.

The Premier League will send nine clubs to Europe next season.  Five teams (West Ham, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Crystal Palace) will go to the Champions League.  The Europa League will be home to 6th place Arsenal, FA Cup Champion Newcastle and Carabao Cup Champion Manchester City.  Everton, 7th place and FA Cup runner-up, will go into the Europa Conference.

 

[_Ben_]

12th to 1st?! What has happened at West Ham?! Maybe not the ‘best’ of seasons but CL money will still be useful to you. 

[keeper#1]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

12th to 1st?! What has happened at West Ham?! Maybe not the ‘best’ of seasons but CL money will still be useful to you. 

I'll have to look but I know they've scooped up a few Crystal Palace players along the way.  They have two Palace senior team players on the roster - CM Ebere Eze and CB Jacob Greaves.  

Eze was a force for them in the midfield playing WAY ABOVE his previous season performances - 13 goals and 17 assists.  In the four seasons prior, he combined for 20 goals and 20 assists and never reached double digits in either category in a single season.

I'm not seeing any really world beaters on their rosters.  Just a bunch of solid players.

 

[_Ben_]

Paqueta - Rabiot - Eze does sound like a nice midfield though! Does this feel like they've 'done a Leicester?' or are they building something longer term?

[keeper#1]

On 27/07/2023 at 14:44, _Ben_ said:

Paqueta - Rabiot - Eze does sound like a nice midfield though! Does this feel like they've 'done a Leicester?' or are they building something longer term?

I don’t see anything that screams long term build. I’ll need to see if they get picked apart like we did and they need rebuild and how they go about it. 

Playing in the larger Olympic Stadium gives them the opportunity to have a larger wage bill than we do.  We need to buy young, build, sell for profit and reinvest back to square two or three. 

[willemvandoorn15]

Im enjoying this read. thanks for posting.

You also beat barcelona, that must feel pretty good..

Hope next season's CL is gonna be good and good luck in the prem.

[keeper#1]

Thanks. I’ll be back to playing and posting on Monday. 

[keeper#1]

2027-28 Champions League Fixtures

Another tough Champions League slate awaits us.  Three teams from Germany, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, and Porto.  Only breathers are Paritzan and Olympiakos.