From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Everton will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Crystal Palace were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Brennan Johnson
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ismaïla Sarr finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Crystal Palace have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Crystal Palace have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Crystal Palace, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Bolton Wanderers for Chadi Riad 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Manchester City leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yeremy Pino finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Crystal Palace have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market24 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dean Henderson signs something — a contract at Crystal Palace or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Tottenham for Tyrick Mitchell 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 34932. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
Market17 Aug 2026
Aston Villa are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Crystal Palace will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 16, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market17 Aug 2026
Paul Richardson is 16, and Crystal Palace have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Fernando
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Tottenham have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tyrick Mitchell. The answer from Crystal Palace has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismaïla Sarr commits to Crystal Palace for another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crystal Palace heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniel Muñoz
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ismaïla Sarr knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Crystal Palace, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Crystal Palace, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crystal Palace heard it as anything else.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ismaïla Sarr knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ismaïla Sarr trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nathaniel Clyne has his answer from Crystal Palace; what he does with it is the next window’s story.