---
title: "Crystal Palace: Fans slate Steve Parish after bigging up Joel Ward"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/crystal-palace-fans-slate-steve-parish-after-bigging-up-joel-ward/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Tommy Joyce"
section: "Crystal Palace"
published: "2019-10-10T15:30:52Z"
modified: "2019-10-10T15:30:52Z"
---

# Crystal Palace: Fans slate Steve Parish after bigging up Joel Ward

**Many Crystal Palace fans have slated Steve Parish after making comments on right-back Joel Ward.**

\[freshpress-poll id=”249833″\]

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](https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/appearances?se=-1&cl=6) 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](https://www.football.london/crystal-palace-fc/players/parish-palace-player-epitomises-everything-17056473) 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](https://t.co/vW4VzXvW1M)
>
> — E-Crystal Palace (@e\_crystalpalace) [October 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/e_crystalpalace/status/1181900571009306624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

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,](https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/162/Show/England-Crystal-Palace) per WhoScored), as well as the most average tackles ([2.9](https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/162/Show/England-Crystal-Palace) per game) in the squad as well as interceptions ([2.3](https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/162/Show/England-Crystal-Palace) 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](https://twitter.com/hashtag/cpfc?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
>
> — JB (@bookerjm82) [October 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/bookerjm82/status/1181902308009009152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

https://twitter.com/jakcpfc/status/1182039617131962369?s=20

> This is parish to a t
>
> — Stu (@stuartAchalmers) [October 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/stuartAchalmers/status/1181940979080802311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

> This gonna rub some people
>
> — Jonathan Bailey (@bailj018) [October 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/bailj018/status/1181916558500798464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

> Parish: Hay look, hes good and cheap…see not spending works everyone.
>
> — El Español (@Fonzarelli\_90) [October 9, 2019](https://twitter.com/Fonzarelli_90/status/1182004239494778880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)