(April 1998)
At the moment things are looking bad, and I shall wait until this extraordinary
season is over before taking stock of the 8 years since the book was written,
none of which have been dull for a Palace fan. Will Venables return? Will he
leave shortly afterwards to take over at QPR, taking the best players with him?
Time will tell.
(April 1999)
I write this on Easter Monday, 1999, as Palace prepare for the home game against
Sunderland, who are storming away with the First Division. The Eagles are in
the middle of the worst crisis ever known at the club, caused by the unholy
alliance of Mark Goldberg, Terry Venables and Ron Noades, who both saw Goldberg's
money coming and took advantage, because it's in their nature. At the moment
Palace are being run by administrators and have made long-serving staff redundant.
Half the first team squad have been sold or loaned to other clubs to cut the
wage bill, and there is massive doubt over whether the club will survive at
all, as they don't seem to be able to pay the wages. The fans have had to swallow
months of half truths and absurd fantasies from Goldberg, and yet he still has
the front to suggest that the club can benefit from the experience he has gained
from this 'difficult' period. I find it staggering that anyone can be so arrogant
and so oblivious to the facts, but maybe that is how you succeed in business.
Maybe that's how you succeed in a career in football management as well, if
Terry Venables is anything to go by. My sincere hope is that Mark Goldberg is
forced to sever all ties with the club, and we never have to see or hear his
smarm ever again.
To finish on a positive note, Steve Coppell has managed to galvanise a team
of mainly youth and reserve players to put together an unbeaten run of eight
games, the most recent being a victory at Norwich from which Dean Austin emerged
as a highly unlikely hero. The danger of relegation has vanished, and we could
well finish very close to the play-offs, which is astonishing, given what has
happened recently. It has never been boring supporting Palace, and I trust that
when I update the text of this book to cover the years 1990-2000, there is still
a club to write about.