June 3 2010

Selhurst Park

Jamesey joins in the collective sighs of relief as we await to see what our new masters have in store.

Simon is gone, long live the consortium. A fanfare of trumpets and a clash of cymbals. The new deal begins.

This writer has been around too long to get too carried away yet. It is, of course, a great relief to know that Crystal Palace FC is still an entity. Earlier this week that situation looked in doubt.

Thanks to a lot of work by supporters - marches, protests, etc - and some nifty last-minute negotiation by CPFC 2010, it looks certain that we live to fight another day.

I must say I was astonished at the amount of news coverage we were given on all the TV channels. At last somebody cared and it made me feel quite emotional.

I think most of us have, at times, given thought as to what we would do if our beloved club was taken away.

And those thoughts were very much to the fore on Tuesday.

Many, of stronger mettle than I, have declared that they would never set foot in another football ground again.

That seems rather too extreme to me as the nine-month routine of supporting a club is a great pleasure in itself.

The nearest club to my home is Chelsea so that would have been irrevocably and utterly out of the question.

My second team, a little further away, would have been Fulham and until the Egyptian gangster arrived, the Cottage was very much a mirror image of Selhurst Park - crumbling and sparsely attended.

Anyhow we can now put these morbid speculations behind us because in 2010-11 we will still be watching the red-and-blues (unless the new men change our strip to green and maroon, bringing the first rumbles of discontent, I'll be bound).

Money, of course, will still be tight so what could we do to improve CPFC that wouldn't cost a fortune?

• Reduce seat prices to more affordable levels if that could be done within budgetary limits.
• Try to find the cash for a lick of paint around the ground. It looks so run-down after a decade of Jordanism. I volunteer to come and man a paintbrush myself for free.
• Stop the deafening and dreary stream of kiddies' music in the run-up to kick-off and let us converse with each other.
• Last, and very much a personal view, would be to stop the "Glad all over" when we score and the mindless shouting of the scorer's name. Triumphalism is a sad game and often brings bad luck in its wake!

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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