The FA Cup triumph has had little impact on a club caught in the mid-table loop, their best assets always slipping away
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sk a Crystal Palace fan what price they would have paid at this time last year to win the FA Cup. Would they have taken a run of 11 games without a win, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guéhi sold, Oliver Glasner disillusioned and on his way out of the club, and a probable relegation battle ahead? Almost certainly, yes.
But equally that Palace fan would be within their rights to ask why there should be a pay-off at all. This isn’t like Portsmouth winning the FA Cup in 2008 while living beyond their means under Alexandre Gaydamak, going into administration in 2009-10. It’s not like Wigan winning the FA Cup as they were relegated in 2013 having been sustained in the Premier League by Dave Whelan.
It’s not even like Leicester who were forced into cutbacks and relegated, two years after adding an FA Cup to their 2016 Premier League title (and were fined on their return to the Championship for Financial Fair Play breaches in their promotion season of 2013-14). There is no suggestion at all of Palace having overstretched; rather they have been chewed up by the economic realities of the modern game.
