After finishing 11th in the Premier League following their promotion from the Championship, the 2013/14 season was a successful one for Crystal Palace.
And following his loan move from Blackpool at the end of the January transfer window that campaign, many supporters had expected Tom Ince to play a huge part as the south London club looked to beat the drop.
@Official_CPFC that is awesome news. Great work by the club in securing all 5 players. Bring on the rest of the season #cpfc#palacewillstay
— Dave C (@roodog2006) February 1, 2014
"@Official_CPFC: The club are delighted to confirm that Tom Ince has signed a loan deal with until the end of the season." Epic!!!
— Michael Chantrill (@MulattoMongrels) January 31, 2014
https://twitter.com/Husky_330/status/429400660283752448
“@Official_CPFC: The club are delighted to confirm that Tom Ince has signed a loan deal with until the end of the season.” Sick
— Daniel Burrows (@MrDCBurrows) January 31, 2014
“@Official_CPFC: The club are delighted to confirm that Tom Ince has signed a loan deal with until the end of the season.” Sooo gasseddd
— Joey Mitchell (@Joess_Mitchell) January 31, 2014
https://twitter.com/AdamJohnFerris/status/429397337547755521
@Official_CPFC @FYPFanzine what a fantastic night! Well done everyone! Noisily confident of surviving in the prem now!
— Bob Withers (@BobWithers52) January 31, 2014
And given the 27-year-old’s exploits in the Championship, it was not hard to see why.
In the 2012/13 campaign, under Ian Holloway, Ince started to develop into an exciting, goalscoring winger.
He finished that term, his last full season at Bloomfield Road, with 18 goals to his name, displaying the sort of firepower Crystal Palace came looking for in the January transfer window of 2014.
In the end, though, it was not something the ex-Liverpool youth product could provide as he went on to score just a sole goal during that short stint with the Eagles.
Ultimately, he struggled to make the step up from the Championship to the Premier League with his move to Selhurst Park always looking like a risky one when considering the context of things.
Tony Pulis, a very conservative manager, is not a coach known for giving attacking and flair players the platform to thrive in.
Bearing that in mind, at that stage of his career, Pulis was probably not the appropriate coach for Ince.
Some Crystal Palace fans, of course, will argue the former England U21 international has gone on to accomplish absolutely nothing since, suggesting he was the problem.
Yet you cannot help but wonder how differently things might have gone had he initially joined a club with a more attack-minded manager.
