Crystal Palace's unfulfilled potential is breeding frustration as lack of progress causes shift in support

An embarrassing defeat to an arch rival often begets a crisis but with Crystal Palace, the humbling loss at Brighton on Tuesday appeared to be more of a final straw within a fanbase that have become increasingly frustrated with the direction of their club.

On the face of it, the situation at Selhurst Park is far from a disaster. Palace fought away interest in Wilfried Zaha, signed a highly-rated German international for nothing and began the season with the same manager that finished the previous, a rare feat for this club in recent years, but delve a little deeper and their latest dip has been a long time coming.

Tuesday’s 3-1 humiliation against 10-man Brighton was their ninth loss of the season, the same amount they had at this stage last year in a campaign they began with seven consecutive defeats and not a single goal. They aren’t rooted to the bottom of table but the mood is hardly one of progress, and it is the mood which has been perhaps the single biggest factor hanging over this year.

Selhurst Park has, for some time now, been considered the best atmosphere in the Premier League but what was once a deafening wall of noise is now a whimper that at times this season could barely have damaged a garden fence.

The well-documented fall-out between the club and the Holmesdale Fanatics has exposed the gap between trying to satisfy the local demand to be a club of south London roots and a business established among the Premier League cabal looking to increase revenues to climb the table. Decision-makers were put in a lose-lose situation where they would either have to upset the most vocal fans or the quieter, longer-standing ones. The real loser thus far has been the atmosphere around SE25 and, perhaps as a result, the team.

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During Palace’s second season in this, their current and longest-ever spell in the top-tier, chairman and co-owner Steve Parish proudly declared that the club should become challengers for the Europa League. A year later and an investment deal with a consortium of American billionaires was announced as part of the plan to take the club to that next level.

Palace had got themselves very excited in a short space of time by splashing money on high wages for players like Yohan Cabaye in a bid to improve the quality of the squad. Following the American investment but still under Alan Pardew’s reign, Andros Townsend and Christian Benteke were brought in at further great expense, altering the wage structure at the club. When threatened with relegation during Sam Allardyce’s reign, the Eagles unloaded another £30m in fees alone on Jeffrey Schlupp, Patrick van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic and then under Frank de Boer they spent nearly £35m on Mamadou Sakho and Jairo Riedewald.

What followed was a necessary spell of belt-tightening to avoid falling foul of Financial Fair Play regulations, but it has stretched a patchwork squad assembled by different coaches of varying philosophies and motives to breaking point.

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Benteke’s goals saved Palace in 2017 but he then scored just three goals in a woeful follow-up campaign. The Belgian was, however, the club’s only fit senior striker and so when he was injured Roy Hodgson had to make do playing midfielders up front and when he was out of form there was no alternative but to persist with a player earning so much money. Alexander Sorloth arrived in January of 2018 as a low-cost, high-upside option but his lack of starts suggests the coaching staff does not have the necessary faith in him to play at Premier League level. Another stale game with Zaha and Townsend, wingers by trade, playing as central forwards against Brighton was a blunt display too far for many fans seething as they left the Amex Stadium.

Hodgson was the toast of SE25 last season, so much so that he was recently awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Croydon, but the once unconditional love he earned by keeping a struggling side up after taking over from a calamitous start to the season is dwindling. The dropped points through his bewildering refusal to use substitutes and his conservative tactics have gone from a frustration to a serious cause for concern that has seen a shift in the support for the manager from the fans and an emergence of a small but noisy ‘Roy Out’ brigade on social media.

When it became clear that the club would have limited funds to spend in the summer, perhaps the 71-year-old’s safe pair of hands ensured that he felt like the right person to inch this team forward. The evidence since, and the fact that one of the most talented squads in the club’s history is unable to progress or show signs of improvement, is perhaps enough to suggest that at the very least the club must ensure they’re already planning for an amicable succession.

Neil Warnock’s second reign came to an end when it became clear he lacked the vision to propel a vibrant team and a better option came onto the market. The now-Cardiff manager’s time came to an end after a 3-1 defeat against Southampton where he incurred the wrath of the fans by bringing off Yannick Bolasie for Martin Kelly as they tried to turn around the game. Warnock’s face appeared on the Selhurst Park big screen at the most inopportune moment and was met with jeers that signalled his time was up. There were vague similarities at the Amex this week when a rain swept Hodgson turned to utility man Schlupp to turn the game around while Jordan Ayew remained on the bench. The away end sputtered with anger.

Defeat at West Ham is unlikely to result in drastic action, nor will anything as long as Palace continue to look like they will finish above 18th place, but the vocal support the club had become known for is not there this season and nor is the progress that had been promised. Crystal Palace aren’t yet a club of shattered dreams but they are one of an unfulfilled promise that is breeding frustration.