Crystal Palace 2010

Finally been confirmed that QPR have agreed compensation with Palace for manager Neil Warnock. This has not come as a shock as rumours have been mounting over the last couple of weeks which has left a sour taste in the mouth for many Eagles. Should be an interesting encounter when Rangers come to Selhurst park in just over a month, not least as they are currently one place above Palace in a relegation dog fight with Palace.

Most fans are hoping for Sir Steve Coppell to return for a fifth time and save the club yet again. Most realist's are expecting an internal promotion for someone within the club.

 

Ex-Forest, Pompey & QPR manager Paul Hart is the new Eagles boss with assistance from old Palace heroes Doogie Freedman and John Pemberton.

Mixed reaction from Palace fans with many disappointed by the non arrival of Coppell. In my view though it's a good move. Hart has a good track record of bringing through young talent, Helped to keep Portsmouth in the Premiership last season under difficult circumstances and is well respected by those he has worked with. Added to this is the fans favourite, Doogie in his first coaching role. Freedman has always been seen as a model professional and team leader, especially when working with the younger players.

It's going to be a tough job to keep Palace up with such a depeleted squad but with the full support of the Palace fans I believe that the new coaching team have a shot at it.

 

Cheers Sturiously, just trying to convey a supporters viewpoint of what is going on at Palace during these difficult times both on and off the pitch.

Be good to hear from others of their thoughts on all thing's Palace.

 

The takeover rumours just seem to be going around in circles. Apparently we'll know the buyers by the end of the day (friday) but everyone seems to have heard something different so don't hold your breath.

So far we seem to have narrowed it down to:

1. 36 possible buyers - three definites and a load of tyre kickers or
those seeking information
2. A mystery buyer that even the administrator doesn't know much about (rumours of Malaysian consortium)
3. other rumours of "Americans" arriving on today
4. Local business men, Parish (Palace fan and supporters favourite for a takeover) and/or Long (and maybe McGovern) and maybe or maybe not Woods
5. Peter Matson (some insurance bod)
6. Noades (or at least Noades after the ground)
7. A former Palace manager sizing up the youth squad at the training
ground for potential buyers
8. Winston McKenzie and his backers
9. Some West Ham guy saying its Massimo Cellini (Cagliari's owner)
reputedly backed up by Italian press reports
10. Clark Hunt, owner of Kansas City Chiefs and Columbus Crew/FC Dallas
11. Jordan back again (God help us) possibly involved because of his
equity with new backers
12. And a definite rumour that Coppell will be back next season

Feel free to add your own rumour as it seems to be open season at the moment. I'm still waiting for Colonel Gaddafi to take over at Selhurst.

 

Still no firm interest from any one party. Looks like any potential buyers are waiting to season end to see which division the club will be playing next season.

Looks like Jordan has F**KED it up big time with the administration and 10 points deduction royally screwing the club up!

 

He's no Colnol Gaddafi but in the latest rumour P. Diddy's agent has confirmed his interest in buying Palace.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...49/Rapper-P-Diddy-to-save-Crystal-Palace.html

Can it get any more ludicrous? At least if he does buy the club pre-match entertainment might improve at Selhurst!

 

pretty sure that the P Diddy story is tabloid lead to fill a few paper colomns on a quiet day. Mckenzie has a track record of being a self publicist who is known to 'twist the truth' for his own benefit. Parrish said he would come in to save the club as a last resort if now one else is prepared to buy Palace. Brendan Guilfoyle says tht he is currently talking to 5 interested parties and would like to have a prefered bidder status by end of March. See the supporters Trust meeting with Brenda for more details... http://www.cpstrust.org.uk/uploads/Minutes_of_Supporters_Trust_Meeting_-_16-3-10.pdf

Ex-chairman Ron Noades also seems to be circling overhead to try and pick over the bones of the club which he intially maimed over 10 years ago when he seperated the club with it's home to his own benefit.

 

The talk on Saturday was that the administrator, Guilfoyle, has finally returned Parrish's phone call after 6 weeks. Looks like Parrish's is the only serious offer on he table but does not include buying the ground or extra cash for funding new players. This buyout would purely guarantee the future of the club.

Another lose on the pitch partially helped by inapt refereeing once again. This makes Tuesday's game v Watford real crunch game. We win we're back among the survival fight, we lose and we're 7 points off Watford and the pace. Here's hoping.

 

Here's a link to video clips of fans reactions following the Watford v Palace game the other night. http://www.winkball.com/walls/Football_Reporters/crystalpalacevwatfor/

If the team battles like they did for this game then we have every chance of staying up. The team spirit from both the players and supporters was electric, the reason why we love the Palace and never give up hope.

 

Clip from the West Brom game; [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEMc8RLmfOI&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Crystal Palace vs WBA 26.04.10[/ame]

The clubs administrator has published his report which includes a list of creditors. One of these creditors is the charity St John's Ambulance which is owed nearly £16k. In response to this Palace fans have set up a 'JustGiving' page to raise the money to pay off the debt which reflects badly on our club. In a little over 24 hours we have raised over £6,000 via email and social networks. Please give something and be part of a worthwhile cause that also shows the true spirit of football fans.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Just click on the link; http://www.justgiving.com/PalaceFans4StJohnAmbulance

Enjoy Your Sunday
BE LOUD, BE PROUD
BE PALACE!!

 

Palace never make it easy but, YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

 

A few clips of Sunday to give you a sense of the atmosphere if you weren't there.
Chant of the season; [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk1DRqcAP88"]YouTube- sheffield wednesday vs crystal palace 02/05/2010 hillsborough holmsedale fanatics palace stay up[/ame]

At the Skysports news studio; [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZPYrSbzRbI&feature=related"]YouTube- Sheffield Wednesday Vs Crystal Palace Part 2- 2/5/10 (Soccer Special)[/ame]

The last few desperate seconds and beginning of celebrations (apart from the Sheff Weds morons attacking Palace supporters, players, female stewards, their own fans and pretty much anyone who got in the way). [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ANOzJar6g"]YouTube- Crystal Palace celebrations at sheff wednesday[/ame]

My favourite clip. After the game Palace players, Derry, Mcarthy & Lawrence(?) go for a pee at motorway service stations on journey home to London. Greeted by about 50 Palace fans; [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0E4_uIUR4s"]YouTube- Crystal Palace after Sheffield Wednesday[/ame]

 

CPFC NEEDS US - THE TIME FOR TALKING & SITTING BACK IS OVER.


After 105 years of FA cup finals, semi finals, promotions, a championship title, giant killings, famous victories, Wembley, stockport, Hillsborough, Coppell, Cannon, Byrne, Freedman, Hilaire, Salako, Martyn, & Kember; all witnessed by generations & generations of passionate Palace fans, our club faces it’s biggest ever challenge…

WE HAVE RUN OUT OF MONEY AND ARE A MATTER OF WEEKS FROM NOT EXISTING

29 members of loyal staff sacked, no money for wages, players being sold just to keep us alive and the future of the club in the hands of companies and individuals whose decisions now directly affect the attempts by the CPFC2010 consortium to save us

As fans, the time for sitting back and doing nothing is over, we are out of time, it’s time to show the world and AGILO, PWC, LLOYDS BANK & SIMON JORDAN that we WILL NOT LET OUR CLUB DIE without a fight, a football club is not a business but the heart of the community and it is now their responsibility to keep that heart beating.

We are calling on all Palace fans to meet at Selhurst Park at 3pm on bank holiday Monday to kick up a storm and show these companies & the national media that we will not sit back and let our club die. Now is the time for unity and strength,when the odds are stacked against us, Palace fans have always come out fighting, now we must do it once again and make a last stand.

- 3PM kick off
- MONDAY 31st MAY
- SELHURST PARK STADIUM

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000694291323&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=120719284629986&ref=mf

 

Mobilising a fanbase can be a difficult task. Simon Jordan often complained about the drop in attendances, and his calls to arms often fell on deaf ears.
Many of Jordan’s problems stemmed from his refusal to deal with supporters directly. Forums filled with opinionated supporters can be threatening – but they can also provide the platform for communication that you might not get otherwise. So while Jordan relied on Palace fans visiting the official website for contact, the CPFC2010 consortium’s approach to getting fans active was comparatively innovative.
The past 48-hours proved to be crucial in the club’s search for safety – new media played a major role in making things happen. CPFC2010 embraced the two major Palace forums in their attempts to get heard, and Palace fans responded. Within hours a protest was arranged – a time set, a location agreed, a movement begun.
Palace fans met at a protest arranged on the internet.

As the morning came and people began to wait for the first snippets of news, a sense of unity spread. It was our pain, it would be our anguish if the club went out of business, and it would be our delight if a last-minute deal was agreed. It was matched by thousands upon thousands of people.
As far as internet users goes, the BBS had it’s highest number of registered members online ever, with more than 2000 people browsing the website at one time. The Holmesdale no doubt had a similar number of people anxiously hitting the refresh button for the latest morsel of delectable Palace news.
Updates from the protest outside Lloyds were posted on the forums. Pictures were uploaded to Twitter. Communications went back and forth – Palace fans updating each other on what they had heard. Those outside the Lloyds’ headquarters made their presence felt, with more than 300 faithful standing and singing as rain lashed down – non-stop, from 11am until the final pieces of the news jigsaw came through at around 5pm.
It had the desired effect – no-one at Lloyd’s could argue that they didn’t know what was going on – internal emails posted on forums suggested as much. Palace fans were being heard loud and proud – in person and on social websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
In the case of Twitter, the social micro-blogging website, posts regarding the club spread like wildfire, with the #saveCPFC hash-tag putting Palace in the internet-limelight.
The term ‘trending’ is used to identify which hash-tags are most popular – and yesterday, #saveCPFC spent some time as the number 1 topic of discussion on Twitter in the UK. This despite the England national squad announcements.
When it wasn’t at number 1, it rarely dropped below 4th. This, along with the thousands of emails sent to politicians and members of HBOS and Lloyds, supplemented what had been a monumental effort to get Palace’s plight noticed.
Journalists, celebrities and even international players such as Edgar Davids tweeted in Palace’s favour. Edgar bloomin’ Davids! (Here, here and here.)
It is only after a day or more that you can truly appreciate just how gargantuan the Palace support effort was.
It was fantastic – a credit to the spirit of the club. The never-say-die attitude of supporters has never been more apparent – football clubs can go through terrible experiences, but their supporters will always be there in one way or another.
CPFC2010 would do brilliantly to keep mobilising the fanbase as they strive to make things happen. A call to Palace fans can go far and wide – it can make the impossible seem possible – it can continue to be a truly modern movement.

From FYP (pALACE Fanzine) http://fypfanzine.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/modern-palace-movement/

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyvFhXqNd0M"]YouTube- Palace Protest 31/05/10 - Holmesdale Fanatics arrive[/ame]

 

We're saved!!!!!!

CPFC2010 are pleased to announce that we have today completed the acquisition of Crystal Palace Football Club from the administrator of CPFC2000.

We have also exchanged contracts and paid a deposit on Selhurst Park, the sale will complete when we satisfy the Football Leagues requirements and CPFC2010 are assigned the Football League ‘share’.

All then that remains is for the successful conclusion of the creditors voluntary arrangement, we feel confident this will be a positive outcome, the former secured creditor of the club accepted a shortfall on their settlement, in light of this and the fact CPFC2010 were and are the only party serious about acquiring the club, we believe our offer represents the best value for creditors.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Lloyds Banking Group for their genuine concern for the future of the club and recognition of what it meant to the community and fans and we are extremely grateful.

We would also like to thank Brendan Guilfoyle of The P&A Partnership who has done an excellent job in trying circumstances, Jon Rouse CEO of Croydon council for his unwavering support, The Administrators' team at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Daniel Norris of Hogan Lovells, CBRE, Andrew Hall & Catherine Guerin of Nicholas Hall and `The Agilo Master Fund.

Also special thanks to David Hinchliffe and Austin Judson of Walker Morris who have worked tirelessly to get the deal finalised as well as David Jensen who has worked equally hard as ambassador to the club and spokesperson for CPFC2010.

We will now start the process of rebuilding the club, starting first with the management and playing squad, all our players have been magnificent, the uncertainty of the past months has been very difficult for them particularly the out of contract players and Darren Ambrose who’s on off transfer has been extremely unsettling. We would like to extend our gratitude to all of them and assure them that we will deal with all of their respective situations as soon as we possibly can. This of course is true of all of the staff at the club who have also been amazing through this difficult time.

Finally of course the fans of Crystal Palace FC whose tremendous support in difficult conditions inspired us to keep going even when it looked like the club may indeed cease to exist in its current form. We look forward to seeing you all next season once again lending your tremendous support, it would be fantastic to pack Selhurst again and we would encourage any of you who haven’t done so already to buy a season ticket, to those of you who already have, rest assured they will all be honored by CPFC2010.

We will call a press conference soon where we will outline some of our plans for an exciting yet stable future for Crystal Palace.

Martin
Stephen
Steve
Jeremy

http://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=203480

 

The attached is a great blog on how the new owners of the club are using new media to connect with their customers the fans. After previous owners who have treated us the fans with near contempt this is as refreshing and positive approach from the new owners. I actually am starting to feel like I have a say in the way that my club is run, long may it continue.

http://ewarwoowar.typepad.com/25letters/2010/06/a-lesson-in-connecting-with-your-customers.html

 

Just in case you don't know George Burley, th ex Ipswich, Derby and Scotland manager, has been appointed as the new Crystal Palace manager.

An excellent choice as he has a lot of experience at this level, a good record of bringing young players through but still has the hunger to prove himself at a higher level after the dissapointment of managing his country. Even greater news is Doogie Freedman as his No.2, a perfect Scottish blend in my view.

CPFC2010 consortium are making all the right noises as to the future of the club and are starting to creating a real buzz around SE25. For an audio of yesterdays news conference go here; http://www.palace-echo.net/ and scroll to the bottom.

 

Looks lke the club will officially come out of administration with the approval from the FA in the next few days.
http://www.cpfc.co.uk/page/Announcements/0,,10323~2100602,00.html

 

Even if I do say so myself Edgar Davids ...
looks dam hot in the new Palace away kit.