Crystal Palace: There's only one team in London!

Dunno who he is

Iknow who it is! And dibs on far right!

Turning Crystal Palace down? What am I mad? There was no way I was going to do that. I owe this club too much and by becoming their manager is just the beginning. Many will think that actually, it is Arsenal FC I owe. Yes I do, they're a fantastic club and it is a honour to be their second highest all time goalscorer. However, this is like a maths equation, if you get the first part wrong, you fail everything else. Palace are that first part, without them I don't think there would have been an Ian Wright.

When I was a teenager, I had a couple of trials at Southend and Brighton but none of them lead to any success, which left me mentally damaged. The one thing on my mind was to play football, my whole life revolved around football and clubs were preventing from doing that. I used to go to school depressed. At home I was always miserable, it was that bad!

The one thing I enjoyed, was playing for my local team, Greenwich Borough and this is where everything kicked off. One day, we were playing a match and we won. I was ecstatic because I personally played very well. As I was walking off the pitch, a scout approached me. Can you guess which club this scout was working for? Crystal Palace. He said he liked what he saw and invited me for a trial. If you ask anyone in my family, they'll know that day I couldn't shut up. I was over the moon, I had one last chance as I was nearing the age that it was now or never.

In August 1995, my fate was sealed and I became a Crystal Palace player! Immediately myself and Mark Bright, who had just signed, formed a great strike partnership, we were scoring goals for fun! My best ever memory with Palace, was scoring a hattrick vs Wimbledon in just 18 minutes, the away fans went mad!

Now I'm the manager of Palace, we're going to play nice, attractive, attacking football. I've spoken to my good mentor, Arséne Wenger. We're going to be a mix of Arsenal and Swansea. As a new side in the league, many will think we will sit back and hope that luck is on our side, that is nonsense! We will attack and hopefully terrorize the oppositions defence. We're working on a few signings and some players such as Chamakh have already joined, he in particular is looking very sharp in training, hopefully he can transfer it to competitive matches.

So here we are, Ian Wright - Crystal Palace V2.0!

A great update, and great choice of manager. Good luck

2013-11-02 08:21#141073 Walter : A great update, and great choice of manager. Good luck

Cheers Walter

Former Arsenal player and Ghanian international, Emmanuel Frimpong has signed for Crystal Palace for a fee of 1.9 million. Frimpong is said to be very happy at joining a club that is undoubtedly on the rise, especially if it means he will game time ahead of the world cup next year. For the past few years at Arsenal, he failed to even make the bench, talkless of starting games.

Speaking to us earlier, Frimpong said:

" Today's a good day for me. Crystal Palace is a great club and I had been talking with Mr.Wright with some time, before deciding that this is the right club for me to join. I've gone out on loan a few times, but none of them have really worked out apart from the Wolves one, but I had an injury which ruined it.

I thank Arsenal Football Club for everything. Arsenal will always be in my heart, I've been there since I was a young boy and I've gone up and up and up. It is a big shame that I couldn't make it there but I wish them all the best in the future. Crystal Palace is my new club and my new home. I want to help them stay in the premier league and just focus on my football and playing well. Obviously, I've got the world cup on my mind, but for now its all about Palace. The fans are very passionate, I know that already. Win, lose or draw they will sing out loud!

Football is what I'm all about. Recently I've received a lot of stick that I don't focus on my football enough and I'm distracted, they say that's why I didn't make it at Arsenal unlike Jack. I agree and that's why "DENCH" has come to an end, there will be none of that anymore."

Ian Wright briefly spoke to the press about the signing of Frimpong:

"Emmanuel is a good lad, despite what everyone thinks he works very hard. He has the potential and the ability. Now all he needs is games and I promise you he will improve. He's a hard man and that's exactly what we need in our midfield."

It is reported that Frimpong signed a two year deal, which will see him earn something around 16,000 a week. Meanwhile, news has just come in that Palace have signed former Arsenal, Chelsea and Real Madrid midfielder, Mahamadou Diarra on a free transfer. It is very unlikely that Palace and Ian Wright will bring in any other player, but they will certainly be looking to get rid of some.

No more Dench?

We're ready for the upcoming season and we're raring to go! Throughout the summer we've been working very hard in training to get fir for the upcoming season. There's a big difference between the championship and the premier league. The tempo in the premier league is much quicker so the players must be very fit or else they will suffer.

Fitness is key. Without fitness we will be incredibly off pace. We did play a few friendlies and I was impressed with what I saw, very impressed. The players are all motivated and are putting in the work. In total we played six friendlies, won three, drew two and lost one. The results don't really matter its the performance. If we won 10-0 but the players didn't play well I would be very angry.



The coaches, all the staff and myself have been working very hard. We've had to decide who stays, who goes, and most importantly the tactics for the upcoming season. We want to attack but be wary of counter attack. We can't go overboard if not we'll be hit and we'll concede. Throughout the pre-season, we've tested two tactics, a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1.





Both tactics are very popular in modern football. Our first fixture is vs Chelsea at Selhurst Park. It will be a tough fixture, to be very realistic, we will be happy with a draw. Chelsea are a great team who have signed and added quality and depth to their team.