Crystal Palace consign Stoke to the Championship and can revel in safety

Another battling performance sees Crystal Palace mathematically safe

The first relegation has been mathematically confirmed, as has Crystal Palace’s safety. It wasn’t a vintage performance, certainly nothing close to the outrageous Leicester result last weekend, but we fought until the end and got our rewards.

The first half was a pretty dull affair, but after Stoke went ahead just before the interval we dominated the play and always looked the likelier of the two sides to score. In typical fashion Christian Benteke, among others to be fair to him, squandered chances to level but thankfully James McArthur and Patrick van Aanholt netted to relegate Stoke and ensure our survival in the same breath.

The season is effectively over. It’s time to celebrate next weekend against West Brom and gear up for the summer…

Read more: Stoke relegated as van Aanholt strikes to keep Crystal Palace in the Premier League

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Crystal Palace must begin planning for next season – starting with the manager

It was roughly this time last year that Sam Allardyce had picked up the pieces of a near-ruinous run before Christmas and guided Crystal Palace to safety despite a difficult run-in. A couple of weeks later Sam Allardyce announced his retirement. Steve Parish launched into another managerial hunt and the less said about the appointed manager the better, but soon we were pointless, our summer’s work undermined and Roy Hodgson was in charge.

Initially, I wasn’t convinced of Roy Hodgson’s appointment on a long-term basis. He’s an experienced manager that always had the ability to steady the ship, but I confessed at the time that I thought the decision was focussed on the short-term not ‘the project’. I can now see that this was a shocking fallacy based on a misguided ideology so many of us bought into. We don’t need an overarching footballing philosophy to win football matches and should be grateful that a manager of Hodgson’s esteem took on the task of a side bottom of the table without a point or goal in seven games.

Knowing Crystal Palace, he’ll follow Sam Allardyce into retirement and the whole charade can start again. All joking apart, tying him down for a couple more seasons should be priority one now we’re safe.

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Relegated sides could be a good hunting ground for a new goalkeeper

This season seems almost unparalleled for the amount of Premier League experience the relegated sides have gone down with. Money and experience is, of course, no guarantee of safety, as we so nearly found out ourselves, but it does mean that there could be a real opportunity to nab one or two players looking for a way out. In particular, a goalkeeper.

For a start, Jack Butland is an England international that surely shouldn’t be plying his trade in the second tier of English football. Then you have the two sides in 17th and 18th place, Swansea & Southampton respectively. Lukasz Fabianski has just been voted supporter’s player of the season despite Swansea’s struggles and Fraser Forster is another England international that could be playing in the Championship next season.

Out of the three, Butland would be my pick. At 25 he has his whole career in front of him, both for club and country and must surely be open to a move away from a now definitively relegated Stoke. Could we get him? Would Roy Hodgson even fancy him? I have no idea, but the ‘strength’ of the relegated sides this year is a big opportunity for those who have stayed up.