Have you noticed that many Albion fans on this board have given credit where it is due and acknowledged Palace’s resurgence under Allardyce? Indeed, when Palace won promotion, a special thread was created on NSC, by the Mods, to enable fans of both clubs to exchange pleasantries, and on that thread Albion fans (grudgingly, of course, but it was done) congratulated Palace.
Compare that with the BBS, where not a single word of congratulation has been recorded. Rather, from that quarter, we have seen nothing but vile and bitter outpourings.
Albion’s promotion to the Premier League is the culmination of twenty years of rebuilding from scratch. Yes, the club has depended on the largesse of a single man, but that man is a lifelong Albion fan. Success has been achieved by capitalising on the chairman’s investment, not on the backs of creditors’ money. Yet all we hear from Palace is that Albion have “bought” promotion, that promotion has been achieved by indebtedness, and that, consequently, the achievement that is promotion to the top-flight has been shamefully tarnished.
I tell you what does tarnish a promotion. Leaving two administrations aside, an episode like Poogate tarnishes the reputation of a club, not just its on-field success. It was the reputation of the Albion that people at Palace, to the very top of its hierarchy, knowing the truth of the matter all along, were happy to see dragged through the mud. Once the truth came out, there was no apology from anyone at Crystal Palace and no corrective coverage from the media (which had been happy to make a story out of Poogate when it was believed that Palace had been wronged).
Palace have CHEATED...That should be known... They would love to have a chairman like ours and our infrastructure and the fact that we have done things the right way.. Every Palace fan knows this but would never admit it!