Crystal Palace think big after breaking their hoodoo

 
Fan power: Crystal Palace take the acclaim of their supporters after securing top-flight safety
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Julian Bennetts20 May 2014

As some of Crystal Palace’s squad celebrated the end of the season by heading to Las Vegas, the club’s board were discussing how they could become one of the Premier League’s high rollers.

Key to that was keeping manager Tony Pulis, and the club are confident his future is secured.

They will back the Welshman in the transfer market this summer, and they have tapped into his love of history by telling him he could leave a legacy in South London over the next few years.

They have done the surveys and believe there is a catchment area of around five million people within an hour of their Selhurst Park home.

Pulis’s achievements with Stoke are well documented — between 2006 and 2013 he secured promotion and then established them as a Premier League club, while also taking them into Europe — but Palace believe they are capable of even more.

“Stoke have a much, much smaller catchment area than Palace and has smaller potential because you have the big Manchester clubs a bit further north and not a very large population,” said co-chairman Stephen Browett.

Crystal Palace Season Review

1/5

“We are the biggest club in South London and within an hour of Selhurst Park there are more than five million people. There is massive potential and the only reason we have never lived up to that in the past is that we have always got into the Premier League and gone straight down again. Now we have kicked that hoodoo into touch.”

Palace supporters are enthused by the prospect. The club have already sold 15,500 of the 17,000 season-tickets available at Selhurst Park, almost double the 8,000 season-ticket holders they had in the Championship.

Work off the pitch is progressing apace, with undersoil heating being installed and the floodlights set to be replaced.

The priority remains the team, however. Pulis has made his recommendations to the board and they will back him in turn. However, Palace will not be repeating the mistakes of last summer when, with Ian Holloway as manager, the club signed 14 players as they tried a mass overhaul of the squad that won promotion.

“Certainly we will help,” said Browett. “We helped in the January transfer window, Tony brought in three or four players then and we will support him in the summer window.

“There won’t be wholesale changes and a brand new team. Fortunately, we already have a pretty good team. But there will be some new faces.”

Pulis has already warned that survival is the prime target for next season but Browett is confident the club do not need to limit themselves to simply ending the campaign in 17th.

“If we can improve things and finish higher than this season that will be a fantastic achievement,” he added.

“I’m sure it [the second season] is difficult but I don’t think it is as difficult as the first one.”

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