Crystal Palace have just shown up the entire league after Gareth Southgate announced his 26-man squad for the Euros this summer.
The change at Crystal Palace has been incredible over the past six months and it’s been so drastic that if you’d told us in January that Gareth Southgate would be taking four Eagles to Germany, we’d have laughed.
But that’s exactly what he’s done and there are few even debating the inclusion of the four names – a number which is more than any other club in the league.
The quartet of Adam Wharton, Dean Henderson, Eberechi Eze and finally Marc Guehi are all justified in their inclusion this summer, and in honesty, there should be as many as five Palace players in the squad with Tyrick Mitchell a player who should’ve been called up as well.
Having so many names in the England squad, however, is just a testament to the excellent work that one man has been doing through the years.
Dougie Freedman’s excellent recruitment at Crystal Palace has now been shown
The four players from Palace called up into the England squad are all a result of Dougie Freedman and the recruitment team who have done some impeccable work over the past few years.
Wharton is arguably the biggest shock, with Declan Rice even confirming that his rapid rise has even shocked the other Palace players in the squad. Six months ago, Wharton was at Blackburn in the Championship but a £22m move to Selhurst Park has seen him a revelation and now heads to the Euros.
Henderson won’t have seen his inclusion coming either as for much of the season he struggled to get past Sam Johnstone. But after an injury to his teammate and some solid end-of-season form, he’s on the plane. Signing Henderson may have looked like a mistake early on, but he’s turned that around.
Eze is the clearest example of earning his place in the squad on merit as he has been in top form and really kicked on ever since Oliver Glasner arrived at Palace.
Finally, Guehi was another who simply had to go considering the injuries in the centre-half position. Guehi would likely be a favourite to start alongside John Stones on June 16th against Serbia.
All four of these players are signings from Freedman, and after a few years of excellent recruitment, finally, it’s baring fruits and clearly excitement over the Palace squad is justified.
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Palace have some of the league’s best talents
There’s one clear thing, this isn’t the same Palace that people are used to and Southgate has realised this.
In the world’s best league, there’s a great argument that Palace have some of the best talents, with these four players not even being the height of the talent.
Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta are just two other sublime talents in the squad, and this proves just how special a group Palace have right now.
Given the success Freedman’s recruitment has seen, we’re inclined to begin building excitement over who will be signed this summer.
Exciting times to be around Palace, next season could see everything come together.
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