Steve Parish shares view on Edouard signing and Palace's transfer window
Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish has expressed his satisfaction with the signing of Odsonne Edouard and the club’s transfer business in summer 2021.
Since appointing Patrick Vieira as manager on July 4th, Palace have made seven signings, handed deals to a range of first-team and Academy players and appointed several senior members of staff. It’s been a busy summer.
Discussing the latest arrival, Edouard, with Palace TV, Parish said: “We’ve seen in the games we’ve played we’re going to get the ball in the box, be a bit more progressive. So we need people with that goalscoring instinct. Odsonne has proved on many occasions that he’s got that.
“He’s a highly rated player. Most of Europe were chasing him a season ago or two seasons ago. Unfortunately the situation with the pandemic, that’s sort of quietened down the European market and enabled us to take the opportunity.
“I don’t think you need to be a super scout, do you, to spot that Odsonne Edouard is a fantastic player and a prospect, and somebody who could possibly come to the Premier League and do well. He’s someone that’s been on a lot of clubs’ radars for a long time.”
Edouard arrives in south London to join an attacking group that will this season include Christian Benteke, Jordan Ayew, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Wilfried Zaha, Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Jeffrey Schlupp. It has become a rich area of the squad which Parish feels Edouard can only add to.
He explained why Palace of all clubs will enable this: “I’ve said to Odsonne that we have fantastic fans and, when I say that, it’s not glibly: ‘Oh, we’ve got fantastic fans.’ We’ve got really encouraging fans. I don’t think it’s any secret why players do well at our club: because if you’re trying and trying to make things happen, you’re going to get cheered on.
“Odsonne’s a player that can run with the ball, he can hold the ball up, run in-behind, go by people, take pot shots and snap shots in the box. He’s got all those weapons in his armoury and I think he has every chance of doing well.”
Turning his attention to the rest of the club’s business this summer, Parish revealed a cautious optimism for the season ahead, and expressed his satisfaction with the last few weeks:
“I think in the context of what we hoped we might achieve before the window started, especially given the injuries we had at the end [of 20/21]… in the context of that and adapting to that and trying to make sure we have the options to get us through that period, I would give us probably a 9/10.
“I think there’s maybe one other thing that we might have liked to get done. But as the manager quite rightly said when we couldn’t get that done: ‘Let’s not get something else done for the sake of it, because we have good players here and we’ve got good players coming back.’
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“I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I definitely feel good about the work we’ve done... We got it done nice and early. We were sat here on the last day of the window pretty much done... That’s not always been the case. Congratulations to the sporting department, to Dougie [Freedman], to the manager, to everybody that’s worked on it.
“We’ve had the benefit of having a little bit of money in a market that’s a little bit flatter than normal. We’re not deluding ourselves, but we’ve taken that opportunity well and we did plan for it.
“I don’t think we could have done a much better job financially for what we’ve got for the money. Where that gets us to we’ll have to see. Like everybody else, I’m optimistic about what I’m seeing, I’m really encouraged by it, but Premier League wins are tough things to come by.”
