‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’; who knew Charles Dickens was going full Nostradamus and predicting Crystal Palace’s summer of 2025 when he wrote the opening line to his brilliant novel A Tale of Two Cities?
Set in London and Paris amid the blood and guts of the French Revolution, the book written in 1859 is the predecessor to the equally epic Great Expectations – a title which also summed up life at Selhurst Park until this week.
It’s been an astonishing few months for the South London club, winning the FA Cup final thanks to the winner from England star Eberechi Eze, returning to Wembley and beating Liverpool on penalties to lift the Community Shield, then commencing their new Premier League campaign with a 0-0 draw at Club World Cup champions Chelsea. What a season it could be for Oliver Glasner’s side!
Unfortunately, that brief window of success may already be closing with the imminent sale of at least two critical components to their recent triumphs.
Eze is on the verge joining Tottenham after a verbal agreement was reached on a deal totalling £60million, centre-half Marc Guehi is moving closer to joining Liverpool for around £38m and Adam Wharton, one of the best midfielders in the business, could also be sold with Manchester United and Real Madrid linked with the 21-year-old in recent days.
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Palace, demoted from the Europa League after breaching dual ownership rules, begin their Thursday night quest to win the Conference League with a two-legged play-off tie against Norwegian club Fredrikstad.
If they are still at Palace then Eze, Guehi and Wharton are all likely to play in the match which will be bittersweet for the Holmesdale End ultras who must reluctantly accept the need for their club to make the utmost profit from the sale of their best players before their contracts expire, while trusting in their ability to sign more than adequate replacements.
Arch-rivals Brighton have perfected the art of having ready-made players to fill the boots of departed superstars and Palace can follow suit by recruiting the likes of £30m Leicester attacker Bilal El Khannouss and Rennes’ talented young central defender Jeremy Jacquet.
Meanwhile, BetMGM and Unibet offer evens there are more than 3.5 goals in the Eagles’ first venture into European football and, even if Eze plays, Jean-Philippe Mateta is our tip to open the scoring at 3/1 with bet365. He is 8/13 with the same outlet to score at any time.
Mateta, who hit the first goal against Liverpool at Wembley and scored 22 times in all competitions last season, is set to sign a new contract so maybe the worst of times won’t be quite as bad as first feared.
Football League bets
Millwall, West Brom, Leyton Orient, Bradford and Grimsby can all be stuck in Football League single, multiple and accumulator bets on Saturday.
Greyhound odds
Bockos Diamond went unbeaten in the Irish Greyhound Derby at the end of last year and returns to Shelbourne Park on Friday night to begin his battle to retain his crown.
Trained by former Portsmouth and Hove handler Graham Holland, this summer’s English Derby finalist glides round the Dublin track and holds huge appeal at 6/1 with Bresbet to win the £107,000 first prize in next month’s final.
Proper Heiress returned to his brilliant best when cruising to Sussex Cup success at Hove at the start of the month and is 28/1 with Bresbet, while our other each-way tickles are English Derby plate winner and former Towcester track record holder Lennies Desire at 25/1 with the same firm and English Derby finalist Sole Mio at 33/1 with sponsors BoyleSports.
