Many Crystal Palace fans have slated Steve Parish after making comments on right-back Joel Ward.
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The Palace chairman said he believes Ward – signed in 2012 from Portsmouth for £400k – ‘epitomises’ everything about Crystal Palace as a football club.
Palace’s all-time record Premier League appearance holder Ward has returned to the first-team this season after Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sold to Manchester United after his Player of the Season campaign last year.
A Crystal Palace fan account tweeted out the Steve Parish quote which can be seen below, and via the Football.London website.
Parish: “Joel Ward to me epitomises everything we have got in the football club. You can spend £45m on a striker, or £42m on a left-sided player, or £27m on a right-sided player, but Joel Ward was £400,000 from Portsmouth. To me, he is absolutely everything about Crystal Palace." pic.twitter.com/vW4VzXvW1M
— E-Crystal Palace (@e_crystalpalace) October 9, 2019
Joel Ward has undoubtedly been an ever-reliable player for Palace since he joined the club. Despite missing out on first-team football for a season and a half when Wan-Bissaka burst on the scene, he was still fully prepared for the Premier League and has had a really solid start to the campaign.
And fans can’t really claim that he is isn’t up to Premier League level when he has the sixth-highest average rating in the Palace squad (6.88, per WhoScored), as well as the most average tackles (2.9 per game) in the squad as well as interceptions (2.3 per game).
Many fans responded on Twitter to Parish’s comments, with a certain set of fans criticising Parish for trying to promote not spending money.
Here are some of the replies below…
Not sure why the money has to be mentioned – loyalty, persistence, hard-work, club defining moments all sum up Ward. It’s great to have seen him grow as a player as we have grown as a club. #cpfc
— JB (@bookerjm82) October 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/jakcpfc/status/1182039617131962369?s=20
This is parish to a t
— Stu (@stuartAchalmers) October 9, 2019
This gonna rub some people
— Jonathan Bailey (@bailj018) October 9, 2019
Parish: Hay look, hes good and cheap…see not spending works everyone.
— El Español (@Fonzarelli_90) October 9, 2019
