The Crystal Palace Courier
Market15 Oct 2035
Jim Thwaites has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Crystal Palace they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Ibrahim Rabbaj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Lankshear 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
Still no ink between Crystal Palace and Marko Mladenović
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Crystal Palace, another week without a signature from Marko Mladenović.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
No hiding place for Benjamin Howard
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Howard, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Joe Bauress is a square peg at Crystal Palace
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market15 Oct 2035
The clock does Jim Thwaites’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Crystal Palace could ask drops and the wages Jim Thwaites can ask rise.
Looking ahead15 Oct 2035
A reunion for Will Lankshear
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tottenham in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad15 Oct 2035
A season on the outside for Duje Milišić
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Crystal Palace has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
- The dugout Henrik Haraldsen has become a man the manager trusts
- The dugout Pedro Pereira knocks on the manager’s door
- The dugout A door opens for George Man