Outburst and injuries during international break: The last week at Selhurst

Last updated : 12 September 2013 By Daniel Smith

 

As players return to SE25 after international duty and the whole squad gets its first real opportunity to train together, it’s safe to say that the last week has been eventful at Palace for a number of reasons.

After the transfer window closed and the 15th signing made his way through the door attention turned to those going on international duty and the hope that no serious knocks would be picked up. Those hopes were not realised as Jonny Williams suffered what is reported to be a serious injury that could potentially see him miss the rest of the season.

This is an unfortunate turn of events for a player that has already had bad luck on the injury front during his short career, and as a fan favourite everyone at Selhurst will want to see a speedy recovery.

Jack Hunt also joined the injury list during the break but was not on international duty; his broken ankle occurred in training. That is two squad players who will now be long-term absentees.

And the squad selection has also been a big talking point at Palace over the last seven days. Once the window signings had been finalised the club announced who had been selected into the 25-man Premier League squad and there were some noticeable omissions.

Owen Garvan, Aaron Wilbraham and Stephen Dobbie all helped Palace achieve promotion last season but none were included in the squad. Garvan took particular offence to this and spoke out on Twitter to express his opinion. This led to debate amongst supporters about whether this was the right or wrong thing to do.

To add to this, new signing Florian Marange was then quoted in the press as being unhappy with how he had been treated by Palace since his move.

Neither of these outbursts will have done their Palace careers any favours and if you took this on a basic employer/employee level, speaking out publicly against an employer would almost certainly lead to disciplinary action.

Football is of course not always as simple as that and from a player perspective, Marange has not even had a Premier League game to show his ability and Garvan will feel his chance is deserved for his part last year.

Unfortunately in football things can be harsh and sentiment ever more dwindling, except of course on the side of the fans, and some difficult decisions have been made that are aimed at strengthening the team.

The step-up to the Premier League is never easy and Holloway feels he has a team that is capable of making the adjustment, and that does not include those players left out. Certainly the like of Dobbie, Garvan and Wilbraham are good Championship player, Marange we don’t know enough about to judge, and loan moves seem likely to at least see them through to January when the Palace squad may need some revamping.

On top of all of this, Holloway and the team will have been preparing for a trip to the champions of England and a return to a ground that saw one of the most memorable nights at Palace. Who knows what will have happened by next week.

Daniel Smith - @dmsmith1987