Dougie Freedman's message to Crystal Palace supporters
posted by Alan Palmer on Thursday 28th of January 2010 06:23:08 PM
Palace legend Dougie Freedman joined the Trust when he moved to Southend United in the summer of 2008 after 10 years in two successful spells at Palace. He kindly took time out of his busy schedule to talk about the difficult times facing the club, the importance of the Academy, and his support of the Trust.
People ask what Crystal Palace Football Club means to me. To be honest, it means no more or no less than it is does to every other Palace fan out there. To see what the club is going through at the moment is as painful for me as it is for you, our supporters, but we’re in this together. Where we find ourselves right now is disappointing, but not the end of the world. This is a time to rally round, to ask what we can all do to help, and make sure that we, as fans, benefit from a dialogue with the administrators who now hold the future of our club in their hands.
We all have to remember that Crystal Palace FC is about more than just the team that trots out on a Saturday afternoon in the Championship. When I heard the announcement this week, my immediate reaction was one of concern that, above all else, the youth team set-up that has been built and flourished over the last decade at the club cannot be allowed to crumble. In many ways, the first-team will take care of itself over the next few months. Neil Warnock, I’m sure, will do his best and, hopefully, keep the side in the Championship, but it is the youth-team academy that is the future of the club.
You just have to glance at the conveyer belt of talent that has been developed over the last few years. I saw the lads coming up through the ranks during my time at the club: initially there were players like Clinton Morrison and Hayden Mullins, then the generation that saw Wayne Routledge, Ben Watson, Tom Soares and Gary Borrowdale make their mark in the first-team. We had high hopes for John Bostock, and now the talk is all about Victor Moses. But remember Nathanial Clyne, Sean Scannell and Lee Hills; or Kieran Djilali, James Comley, Kieron Cadogan and Nathanial Pinney who are waiting to make their mark. Sure, players move on – and sometimes we are all frustrated at seeing talent leave – but they will always retain a soft spot for the club that nurtured them. That bond between player and club will always be there, wherever they go on to make a living in the game. That link with their roots is unbreakable.
Few clubs are fortunate to boast such talent in their junior sides, and it is no fluke that Palace have been able to bring so many talented players through. From the Under-18s all the way down to the Under-9s and Under-10s, they have put so much time and effort into developing these players. It is the academy that is the lifeblood of the first-team at the club, but it also gives you, the fans, a connection with all things Crystal Palace. In so many cases, these are south London or Croydon boys making their mark.
Lose the academy, and the club loses a link with its local community. That is something I’m desperate not to happen because, for all the financial problems the club is enduring now, the real legacy of the Simon Jordan era is the academy set-up. I know it was his passion, as it was that of his brother, Dominic, and his father who would attend every youth-team game and follow the prospects up through the age groups into the senior ranks. It has prospered. It has to stay in place to give kids that chance that they might never otherwise have had.
And how do we, as fans, do what we can to save that system? By stressing to the administrator that the academy is essential for the future of Crystal Palace Football Club. The supporters need a voice. It might only be a small voice in the grand scheme of things, but we need something with which we can shout out and make our point, and the Trust offers us a means of doing just that. I know the last time Palace found themselves in this position, the fans rallied round and raised an astonishing amount of money when it appeared everything else was lost. Realistically, the figures involved this time around make depressing reading but, in the hope that there are interested parties out there willing to lift the club out of its current predicament, we have to find a way of generating any kind of influence we can.
We, as fans, have to be able to put our points across to the administrators, and the Trust offers the clearest means of doing just that. I would urge the fans to join up to the Trust, to unite and, by sheer weight of numbers, surely we cannot go ignored. If we rally round, we can get through this.
Dougie Freedman
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