Another ambitious summer of business for Palace

As of eleven o’clock yesterday evening the excitement drew to a close, the transfer window had slammed shut for another few months and the squad which will determine the success or failure of Palace’s season was complete. Yohan Cabaye’s signature last summer represented a breakthrough for us, it was an unmistakeable sign of ambition and was a far cry from the stature of players we’d been bringing in before. This summer has seen further ambition from the club with five top bracket additions in total and around £60 million spent alongside some notable departures.

There were two very distinct periods of the transfer window for Palace. We got a number of deals done early on prior to the start of pre-season before a couple of important signings in the last week or so.

French international Steve Mandanda and Andros Townsend were the first across the line, with the latter breaking what was the club record fee at the time with a £13 million move from relegated Newcastle. Townsend’s absence from the England squad for the European Championships meant that he was the only new signing to play a full part in pre-season and subsequently featured in the first three games of the season. He’s made a solid start to his Palace career, providing some rare bright spots in what has been an opening few games without many and I’m sure he can kick on and fill Yala’s boots.

Mandanda’s exploits with France and Tomkins’ injury during pre-season mean that they haven’t played much football – nowhere near enough to make any sort of conclusions about either. That being said, you don’t play 23 times for France and hundreds of times for one of the best sides in France if you don’t have real quality and that is what Mandanda does have.

Christian Benteke and Loic Remy were both huge signings for the club also. Christian’s signing came at a tumultuous time after the first couple of performances left a lot to be desired with pressure mounting on Pardew. It was blatantly obvious that we needed a quality striker, an upgraded focal point and Benteke’s signature reinstalled some faith.

Getting Loic Remy in on a loan deal was another excellent piece of business. He’s not had the best of times at Chelsea with respect to the amount of opportunities he’s been afforded, but he was successful in spells at QPR and Newcastle and he will get opportunities at Palace. Teaming Loic Remy & Christian Benteke with Zaha & Townsend out wide is a both a mouth-watering idea and potentially lethal combination going forwards.

All that being said, as far as I am aware we missed out on a couple of deals which I think would have strengthened our position even further. Jedinak leaving for Villa left us a bit short in the middle of the park and I would have liked to have seen a replacement come. Jack Wilshere opted to move to Bournemouth on loan as opposed to Palace and though there were rumours of a bid for James McCarthy that never materialised which is a shame.

It hasn’t just been a summer of incomings though with some much-loved players leaving SE25 over the summer. Alex McCarthy departed for the South coast and Southampton in a move which made sense for all parties given Mandanda’s arrival. Alex got a lot of stick at the start of last season after some questionable performances early on, some of it deserved and some less so, but he never really laid a strong enough claim to the number one jersey to convince either the fans or, apparently, Alan Pardew.

Dwight Gayle was another player who departed the club early on in the summer. He was always a player who divided opinion, I was personally a big fan of his and thought that he was the best finisher we have had at the club since the magic Andrew Johnson but we never really got the best out of him which was a real shame. Yannick Bolasie is now running down the wing for another set of fans up in Merseyside and while he was scintillating to watch at times the £25 million plus figure we received for him and his desire to move to pastures new meant that this was another deal which just made sense for everyone.

When Jedinak’s departure was announced I was disappointed and nothing has changed in that respect. A considerable number of fans were calling for him to be dropped and moved out last season but were then incensed when he completed his move to Villa, adding the taste of hypocrisy to the whole ordeal. For me it wasn’t about him leaving the club, it was the way it happened and what I said at the time is worth repeating I think.

As a player alone Mile Jedinak can be replaced and probably even improved upon, although whether we can replace his influence as a leader remains to be seen. What we can’t do however, is take back the way we’ve treated a man who has been nothing but a consummate professional and a true gentleman at our club, a man who helped restore Premier League status to our club and set the foundations for the wonderful last few years we’ve seen.

Back in May I wrote that I thought we needed a centre-half, a keeper, a winger and a striker. Here we are in September and while the names I suggested (apart from Andros) proved to be wide of the mark the players signed fit exactly into those positions and have plugged some holes in the squad. Last season we lacked depth and that was the root of a number of our problems post-Christmas and while the squad still lacks some depth in one or two positions the summer signings have reduced that number down from five or six positions.

Aside from the handling of Jedinak’s departure which still doesn’t sit well with me, I think both the management and board have to be congratulated for identifying areas that needed to be strengthened and going out and getting it done – Steve Parish in particular has proved time and time again in successive windows that if the money is there to bring in players he will get it done. Now it’s up to both the managing and playing staff to really kick on from a poor start to the season and deliver the performances that one of the best squads in our history is capable of delivering.

Up the Palace!