Vital Statistics
Founded: 1905
Chairmen: Steve Parish & Martin Long
Last Season: Championship - 20th
Nickname: The Eagles
Rivals: Brighton & Hove Albion, Charlton Athletic, Millwall
Major Honours
None
Scheduled Matches
Crystal Palace vs Portsmouth: Tuesday, November 1st (7:45pm)
Portsmouth vs Crystal Palace: Tuesday, April 17th (7:45pm)
Transfers In
Kagisho Dikcagoi (Fulham - £600,000)
Mile Jedinak (Genclerbirligi - Free)
Transfers Out
Adam Barrett (Bournemouth - Free)
Neil Danns (Leicester - Free)
Allesane N'Diaye (Southend - Loan)
Kieran Djilali (Released)
Claude Davis (Released)
The Manager: Dougie Freedman
"Doogie" is viewed as a legend by many Palace fans for his goalscoring exploits in his playing career. After hanging up his boots he became the Eagles' assistant manager to George Burley until Burley was sacked on New Year's Day 2011.
Freedman has been permanent manager ever since and helped guide his team to safety at the end of last season. This will be Freedman's first full season in charge at Selhurst Park and many are tipping him and his side to struggle.
The Fans
I have a lot of time for Palace fans as, like us, they have been dragged through the mire in recent years. They have had ownership issues which almost saw Palace go bust last year and have also suffered Paul Hart in charge of their team.
Not to mention that Palace also play in a similar ground to Fratton Park and also have a passionate following, especially away from home. So Pompey and Palace fans do share plenty in common.
There are many well-known Palace fans including funny man Ronnie Corbett and not-so-funny woman Jo Brand, actors Neil Morrissey and Bill Nighy and Faithless frontman Maxi Jazz.
The Ground: Selhurst Park (Capacity: 26,300)
I remember reading a survey back in 2005 that had Fratton Park named the second-worst ground in the Premier League. The worst? Selhurst Park! To be fair, whilst I don't think it's a fantastic ground it's certainly not terrible by any means.
This photo of the main stand at Selhurst Park was taken from the away section in the aging Arthur Wait stand. The seats are wooden and if you sit too far forward then you're open to the elements but the stewards didn't seem to mind fans watching the game by standing in the concourse.
This is a (bad) photo of the Holmesdale Road end where a section of Palace "ultras" sit in the bottom left corner and keep the atmosphere going.
The Whitehorse Lane end is probably the "nicest" stand in the ground and is where all the corporates watch the game.
