Marked for David Angibeaud
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The window shuts on the Tammy Abraham deal
Crystal Palace ran out of time with Aston Villa. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Taty Castellanos and Crystal Palace agree another 5 years.
Match11 Sep 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Yeremy Pino beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Óscar Mingueza falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Adam Wharton
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Wharton will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Crystal Palace the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam Wharton is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer from Port Vale for Matheus França was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market9 Aug 2027
The name of Tyrick Mitchell has come up in conversations Crystal Palace were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Mingueza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Angibeaud and Crystal Palace agree another 3 years.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Ben Chilwell asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Crystal Palace is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market19 Jul 2027
A conversation is coming this week. Crystal Palace will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Mingueza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market19 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ismaïla Sarr’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
When it matters, Will Hughes plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Match19 Jul 2027
Position 5 on 61 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Crystal Palace. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
David Angibeaud asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Adam Wharton again, and this time the name on the line is Stoke City. Crystal Palace are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market12 Jul 2027
Remi Matthews hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Crystal Palace can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Mingueza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Adam Wharton has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Crystal Palace.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Cheick Doucouré has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Angibeaud was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of João Queirós
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dean Henderson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Eddie Nketiah has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crystal Palace will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout24 May 2027
David Angibeaud: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Crystal Palace have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market24 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Matheus França
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus França will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Crystal Palace the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 May 2027
Jorrel Hato falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 May 2027
Darío Osorio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Quinten Timber’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 May 2027
Harry Lee gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market24 May 2027
Crystal Palace have made Adam Wharton available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes Eddie Nketiah a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Crystal Palace. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.