Our latest review of the 2020/21 Premier League issues is published today with a look at the Crystal Palace programme. Read the full review below, and click here to see all of this season’s issues.
The Palace programme has a similar look and feel to last season, with an A5, 80-page issue offering 65 pages of content. There is a decent amount of reading within each issue, with the best features being a couple of historical articles.
The current season marks 30 years since Palace’s memorable 1990/91 campaign, and the programme includes a related feature from club historian Ian King. This looks back at the season when Palace finished third in the old Division One, and features newspaper clippings from the time. ‘Voices of South London’ meanwhile focuses on Palace-related people living south of the river. For the Tottenham issue for example, the feature looked at the work of Peter Manning, who uncovered the details behind Palace’s claim to be the oldest professional football club in the world.
‘Game That Changed My Career’ sees one former Eagle recalling a key match from their career, while ‘Kit or Miss’ looks back at memorable kits from Palace’s history, with an analysis of the kit itself and a ‘story of the season’ from when it was worn. The programme also features a couple of player interviews; ‘Copers Cope’ – a two-page photographic section; a three-page column from former Eagle Darren Ambrose; and a three-page junior section, with quizzes and games for younger Palace fans.
The visitors’ section covers nine pages, plus a separate quiz on connections between Palace and their matchday opponents. The section benefits from a nicely designed opening page, featuring the opposition’s club crest, with content including a match preview, club information (record holders etc), kit details, recent form, and the team’s last line-up, including a formation graphic. There are four pages of player information, with biographies of key members of the team. As well as the visitor specific content, there are two-pages of player comparisons, looking at stats for players from the Palace team against their counterparts in the opposition’s ranks. Journalist Daniel Storey pens a two-page feature on the visitors, providing a good level of detail about the team’s players and tactics.
In respect of club information, there are two-page columns from manager, captain, and chairman, while there are a couple of pages on the ‘Palace for Life’ foundation. The programme includes a three-page article on a Palace academy player, with two pages given over to a similar profile of one member of the club’s women’s team. There is also a page showing the results and fixtures for each of the club’s ‘other’ teams, while the first-team’s record is shown in the familiar two-page spread.
Each issue features an impressive cover design – echoing Burnley’s covers from last season – with details from Palace’s kit in the top half and their opponents’ colours in the bottom half – the covers for the visits of Wolves and West Brom being especially eye-catching. Inside, the programme makes use of mostly plain white backgrounds, but with a few additional design features when compared with last season’s issue. Rather oddly, some headings are placed to overlap page edges, with some disappearing into the perfect-bound spine.
A solid programme then from Palace. Whilst this is not an issue likely to compete for our end of season awards, there is certainly some worthwhile reading included, with the historical features being the pick of the bunch.