When Crystal Palace won the FA Cup last season, their team was not littered with superstars but rather bargains plucked from the Championship and beyond.
It was a triumph celebrated not merely in south London because this was the perfect reward for years of getting it right, of punching above thanks to the sheer quality of their pound-for-pound recruitment.
Beating Manchester City only amplified this achievement, and central to this maiden major trophy were Eberechi Eze, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Marc Guehi, Adam Wharton and Daniel Munoz – a quintet who cost £76.3m combined. Josko Gvardiol cost City £77.5m alone.
That £76.3m represented shrewdness. Signings from Queens Park Rangers, Mainz, Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers and Genk respectively, with risk deemed low but the potential great, in keeping with the £3m spent on Wilfried Zaha and £8m on Michael Olise – the streets won’t forget a £10m Yohan Cabaye, either.
Compare that to the £83m spent this winter transfer window, on merely two players where Palace twice broke their club record and were outspent only by Manchester City in Europe, and the strategy that brought (and bought) them their finest hour has been thrown out the window nine months later.
And for what? It begs the awkward question.
Have Palace gone backwards?
The price tags will weigh heavy on £48m Jorgen Strand Larsen and £35m Brennan Johnson for the remainder of this campaign.
Through no fault of their own, the duo arrive as a symbol of rash thinking after years of careful steps, as proof the club can spend – seemingly to appease fans – while forgoing the how and the why.
Immediately, both are tasked with plugging gaps a year after the club’s annus mirabilis, and it is an unenviable position amid a period of great unrest, with Eze and Guehi gone, and Mateta and Wharton primed to follow manager Oliver Glasner out the door this summer as well.
Mateta would have left already were it not for a dodgy knee, and as he considers surgery after his deadline-day move to AC Milan collapsed due to a failed medical, the onus passes to Strand Larsen in attack – and in kind for winger Johnson to pass to the Norwegian No 9.
It is not a combination that will frighten defences, Strand Larsen with his one league goal this season, and Johnson whose two league goals came in August for Tottenham Hotspur. His last assist was in April.
2016 all over again
With 2016 nostalgia rippling across social media at the start of this year, Palace have followed suit, Strand Larsen and Johnson mirroring two arrivals from 10 years ago.
Then, in the summer before the 2016-17 season, Palace’s top two signings were striker Christian Benteke from Liverpool and winger Andros Townsend from Newcastle United.
Benteke joined for a club-record £27m after failing to impress Jurgen Klopp in his new role at Liverpool, while Townsend had fallen out of favour at Tottenham before spending just six months on Tyneside.
The parallels are there, although the die is yet to be cast on Strand Larsen, who it is worth noting scored 14 league goals last season and this term was not solely to blame for a generationally-bad Wolves side sinking without a trace.
Palace fans will therefore hope for a repeat of Benteke’s goalscoring exploits from Strand Larsen, with the former scoring 17 times in his first season at Selhurst Park.
What they will be out to avoid however is the chaos that season ignited. Alan Pardew left in December 2016, to be replaced by Sam Allardyce, who then resigned in the summer of 2017 before Frank de Boer took charge for all of four leagues games.
Just 10 months on from Pardew’s departure, along then came Roy Hodgson, who brought not the spectacular but valuable stability, with a four-year stint that helped build the foundations which would take them to silverware at Wembley.
The very core of that achievement was recruitment. Signing relative unknowns and polishing them into stars. Munoz, a £6.8m signing, was man of the match, while goalscorer Eze would go on to join Arsenal for £60m.
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Eze going made Palace £40.5m profit but not sourcing a replacement catapulted them into this current mess, and having now ignored their own transfer policy the biggest decision of all awaits this summer: not who to add to their squad, but who will oversee it.
Much like Strand Larsen and Johnson, good luck to whoever fills Glasner’s shoes. How do you replace a manager who delivered the FA Cup and could yet lead them to a European trophy?
The harsh reality is that you probably can’t.
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