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What if Crystal Palace won the FA Cup, only for everything to fall apart? Follow the incredible story of the Eagles' fictional journey from triumph to turmoil, as a series of disastrous events over just nine months breaks the South London club.
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00:00It's May 2025, and all around Selhurst Park is a jubilant sea of red and blue.
00:06Crystal Palace, against all odds, have just beaten Manchester City to lift the FA Cup,
00:10the first major trophy of their history.
00:13Oliver Glasner, the genius behind the triumph, is heralded as a king amongst men,
00:18ushering in a new era of pride for South London.
00:21Well, supposedly, because fast forward nine months and the club is a shadow of its former self.
00:26How did one of the most promising chapters in Crystal Palace's history implode with such shocking speed?
00:32From European demotion to the manager's imminent departure, all via the sale of the club captain,
00:37here's the story of an insane nine months that broke Crystal Palace.
00:53Now, the starting point for this journey is, unfortunately,
00:55the highest point, as mentioned, an FA Cup victory.
00:59This wasn't a fluke at all.
01:00Palace were a team full of swagger, playing some attractive football
01:03and going on to post a record Premier League points tally for themselves.
01:06So, where did the first crack appear?
01:08Well, oddly enough, not on the pitch, nor on the training ground,
01:12but instead in the boardroom, where the dream of Europa League football,
01:16earned through that FA Cup win, was snatched away on a technicality.
01:20Now, because of UEFA's strict multi-club ownership rules
01:23and John Texter's significant stake in Palace,
01:26as well as French club Lyon, who qualified for the Europa League 2,
01:29Palace found themselves in a legal squabble,
01:31whereby both teams couldn't compete in the same competition.
01:35The sad reality of this is that a deadline in March 2025
01:38regarding those ownership rules and the need for restructuring was missed entirely.
01:43The club did appeal the ruling, but by the start of the new season,
01:46it had been rejected and therefore demotion to the UEFA Europa Conference League
01:50was rubber-stamped.
01:52Still, European football for the first time in their history,
01:55but not exactly at the level that they wanted.
01:57Meanwhile, in the summer transfer market, after loads of speculation,
02:00talisman Ebereche Eze finally left the club joining Arsenal.
02:04Now, I will say this isn't exactly uncharted territory for Palace.
02:07They've lost players and some has gone by and have always bounced back.
02:10Whether it was Elyse or Zaha, it's part and parcel of the football food chain.
02:14Bigger clubs offer bigger money and bigger competitions to play in,
02:17so there's not really a shock angle to this,
02:19but it's still left an Eze-shaped hole in the squad.
02:22One that new signing Jeremy Pino is doing his best to fill,
02:25but it is a very big ask.
02:27The actual struggle of the transfer window was what to do about Mark Gahey,
02:32the club captain and star defender who was entering the last year of his contract
02:35and therefore posing a big question to the club.
02:38Do they accept the £35m offer from Liverpool and face a rush to replace him?
02:42Or do they keep him, but lose him on a free next summer,
02:45when you think they would have had time to find a replacement?
02:48Long story short, they kept in, but only a short while later it was clear
02:50that his head had been massively turned.
02:53So once the transfer window had slammed shut,
02:55it seemed like a good time for Palace to take stock of what had happened in the previous months.
02:59Lost a star player, kept a star player,
03:02still had the core squad firing on all cylinders,
03:04winning the Community Shield against Liverpool in August, by the way,
03:07and starting the season fairly well.
03:09The opening six fixtures saw them go unbeaten,
03:11and after 15 games, they were sitting pretty in a Champions League spot.
03:15Even with the news that Mark Gahey had rejected a new contract
03:18and announced his desire to leave at the end of the season,
03:22this was always the risk that the club knew they were taking
03:24when they rejected Liverpool's offer.
03:25So it wasn't exactly out of the blue.
03:28What was out of the blue, though, was the dip in form,
03:31especially in front of goal.
03:33The injuries to key players such as Daniel Munoz,
03:35Daichi Kamada, and Eddie Nketiah,
03:37and just a wave of bad luck that would carry over from the end of the year into the new
03:41one,
03:42to define what was, all in all,
03:44an absolutely horrendous January transfer window.
03:48The news has just been confirmed.
03:51Mark Gahey is a Manchester City player.
03:54Now, let's talk about the off-field shenanigans
03:56before we even touch what's happened to the club on the pitch.
03:59Because January rolls around,
04:00and Mark Gahey is free to talk to clubs abroad
04:02about a free transfer at the end of the season.
04:04Or, if Palace want to cash in,
04:06they take a cut price.
04:08Which is what they did.
04:09It wasn't Liverpool's £35 million,
04:11but £20 million from Manchester City.
04:13Now, obviously, part of the problem is losing your captain and best defender.
04:16Let's not understate that and the impact on the squad.
04:18But the bigger issue was how the club went about it,
04:22and the knock-on effect it has,
04:23and will continue to have,
04:25into the summer and beyond.
04:27The public acknowledgement of the damage this caused came
04:30on a future-defining weekend in mid-January.
04:33It's like life at Crystal Palace exists in two separate timelines,
04:36before and after Oliver Glasner's pre- and post-match interviews.
04:40First up was the pre-match one,
04:42an opportunity to speak before his side trip to Sunderland,
04:45where he announced Gahey's imminent departure,
04:47and then, against the club's apparent wishes,
04:50also announced his own departure,
04:52saying,
05:02And that's just the start.
05:04The following day, in the wake of defeat to Sunderland,
05:06he went on a bit of a post-match rant,
05:08basically just totally crashed out.
05:10We feel like we're being completely abandoned,
05:13selling our captain one day before a game,
05:14there is no understanding for this.
05:17We're preparing,
05:17and then yesterday I get told our captain will be sold,
05:20but why not next week?
05:22Oh, and he wasn't done there, by the way.
05:23If your heart gets ripped out twice a year,
05:26with Eze one day before a game in the summer,
05:28and your captain one day before a game,
05:30I've just got no understanding.
05:32It meant that, basically,
05:34he's now become his own interim boss,
05:37just sort of overseeing the job,
05:39whilst knowing he's not in charge for the future.
05:42An odd situation that apparently led to the club debating
05:44whether or not to sack him,
05:45but, ultimately, they decided against it.
05:48Now, for me, if I may throw my two cents in here,
05:51I sort of understand the overall plans for the club
05:53once they realised Glasner was leaving,
05:55but the way it has unfolded
05:56has soured the situation to an unnecessary extent.
06:00Glasner was apparently annoyed
06:01at the lack of reinvestment after the Eze sale,
06:03then tells the club he's leaving in October,
06:05around the same time Gaye does.
06:07So, maybe they have just cut their losses completely.
06:10Yes, it's very messy when it's played out in public,
06:12but maybe the overview, or the headline, is this.
06:16Your manager says he's going, the captain too.
06:18So, you recoup as much money as you can,
06:21you don't spend it on backing a manager
06:22who's on his way out anyways,
06:24and in the summer, when the new man takes over,
06:26he doesn't inherit a squad full of players he didn't buy,
06:29with the captain leaving on a free,
06:30and with less money to shape the squad going forward.
06:33You give him everything he needs.
06:35That's just my thoughts on it all.
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06:52It's Macclesfield's moment.
06:54It's Macclesfield day.
06:55Now, if all of that constitutes structural collapse,
06:58the moral collapse has come on the pitch,
07:00none more so in their defence of the FA Cup,
07:02which fell at the first hurdle
07:03after being knocked out by 6th-tier Macclesfield
07:06in the third round.
07:07This wasn't even a Week 11 Glasner put out.
07:09It was just a team carrying the burden
07:11of distraction and uncertainty
07:12against the side,
07:14carrying the optimism and inspiration required
07:16to pull off one of the greatest Cup upsets
07:18of all time.
07:20So, as we head into February post-transl window,
07:23the failure to beat Nottingham Forrest
07:24has meant that they are now winless in 12 matches,
07:26with their last victory coming in the Europa Conference League,
07:29beating Shelbourne 3-0
07:31all the way back on December the 11th.
07:34And then, after all that,
07:35that's right, the story doesn't end here just yet,
07:38star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta announces
07:40that he has asked to leave the club,
07:41citing a lack of ambition.
07:44The fact that he has stayed past the window
07:46could go one of two ways.
07:48Either he's a negative impact on the club
07:49as it's clear he wants to leave,
07:51or he could see these next few months
07:53as his final hurrah
07:54and give the fans something to shout about
07:56before departing in the summer,
07:58sort of in the same way that Glasner could see it.
08:00But there's different rules to what counts as a positive impact
08:02when you're a player to when you're a manager.
08:05Having said that, football doesn't live in the future.
08:08It lives in the now.
08:09And whilst getting rid of someone
08:10who doesn't want to be there is good,
08:11losing his goal-scoring abilities is a big blow.
08:15So, after all this,
08:16is there still hope?
08:17Do I really want to end on a completely negative note
08:20that makes Palace fans want to shut their eyes
08:22for the rest of the season?
08:23To be honest, yes.
08:24There's a winnable UEFA Europa Conference League
08:28knockout tie on the horizon.
08:30They might go further into European competition
08:31than many expected.
08:33The injury crisis could ease up a bit
08:35with players like Munoz returning.
08:36Adam Wharton is still an absolute joy
08:38to watch in the middle of the park.
08:40But just try not to think about
08:41how he might not remain at Selhurst Park for too long.
08:44And lastly, there are others in the same boat.
08:47Well, sort of.
08:48Newcastle and Spurs also fall into this category
08:50of clubs who won something last year
08:52and look miles off at this time around.
08:54Although, as is often the case with slightly bigger clubs,
08:56they have the resources to pull themselves out of it quicker.
08:59Maybe all three of them made a deal with the devil,
09:02trading it all in for one glorious day
09:04in the club's history.
09:05One I was there moment.
09:07One snapshot in time to look back on
09:08when everything else seems to be falling apart
09:10in front of their very eyes.
09:12There might be an almighty storm clouding the sky
09:14over Selhurst Park right now,
09:16but things surely won't be this bad forever.
09:19To use the most cliche of footballing terms,
09:21there's always next year.
09:23So that's all from me for today.
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