Crystal Palace season preview and prediction: It’s been a quiet summer at Selhurst Park… hopefully it will lead to a smoother season too
IT has been a relatively quiet summer at Selhurst Park, certainly when compared to last year.
No English managers walking out. No Dutch managers coming in. No talk of "Total Football" or sea changes in style.
Palace will be hoping this season goes a lot smoother than the last one, too.
For a large part of that, the Eagles looked like they were going down as they struggled to recover from their appalling start under new boss Frank de Boer, who was axed after no goals and no points from his first four Prem matches.
His replacement, Roy Hodgson, failed to initially arrest the slide before his methods finally sunk in with the players.
He guided the team to safety, eventually finishing a very credible 11th.
The Eagles would surely settle for another mid-table finish, albeit under less stressful circumstances.
Yet if they repeated their end-of-season form, they would surely be challenging for the top four.
Hodgson knows he needs more goals and will look to get striker Christian Benteke, who netted just three times in the Prem last term, back in form.
At the other end of the pitch, the Eagles boss has brought in Spanish keeper Vicente Guaita on a free from Getafe.
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Hodgson has also cleared £70,000-a-week from the wage bill by letting French midfielder Yohan Cabaye leave for the United Arab Emirates.
Since their top-flight return in 2013, Palace are yet to have a decent full season. It is either a good first half of a campaign and bad second half or vice versa.
The Eagles hope Hodgson can provide greater consistency.
VERDICT
Last season showed Palace cannot afford to take their Premier League status for granted.
They will be looking to get to that magic 40-point mark quicker this time.