Florian Marange slams Crystal Palace for leaving him out of Premier League squad

[Betfair Bozo]

Isn't it just that Moxey, who they thought was not up to it, has done pretty well for them so far? Similar to how Glenn Murray, who they didn't think was up to it after his first season, came (very) good. And a little bit similar to the manager, who they may have been considering parting with, somehow got them up through the play offs (thanks in large part to our capitulation.) The only difference now really is that they have the money to waste.

 

[churley1]

Not a patch on the two muppets provided to you. Really, you should check them out.

You also need to question your definition of plastics. I live in London and was not a season ticket holder prior to Amex but have indoctrinated my 4 kids to be avid fans in the face of ridicule from these new chelsea fans (plastics?) around since 2003; haven't come across any palace though.. We went to games at withdean but not a huge amount due to cost and it being an awful.place to watch a game, especially wiyh kids. We did get to around 10 away games per season though andd are all now seasonnticket holders.

You haven't had this; you had very cheap tickets and a very accessible ground. You are under cover, near the pitch and it is your long term home; no reasons not to go. OK its a shite hole compared to amex but not an excuse for not going to watch your team. So we are 5 of thr of the 26k up from 9k fans. Compare that to your newbies that only turn up at wembley or when you are in the premier league.

The vast amount of the fans turning up week in week out at Amex are like me. Plastics don't turn up to championship games in this way and yes, when we get to the premiership we'll have our fair share of them too, just like you. Difference being they won't be able to get tickets unlike at Selhurst.

So how do you excuse examples like this? A small row of fans who have season tickets at The Amex swapped their Brighton shirts for Liverpool shirts when you played them in the League Cup a couple of years back, I've never seen that at Selhurst. Not only that, how many of the WSL were on their feet applauding Steven Gerrard warming up? It was ludicrous to see.

I'm never going to deny that there are/were plenty of fans who didn't want to experience The Withdean week in, week out, that's a given. To suggest that around 20,000 were all thinking the same though is hard believable, is it? You have a huge number of new fans and kudos to you for bringing such a large number in, to say our support is somehow inferior though because we haven't managed to do so is irrelevant.

Congratulations for turning this thread into another attendance related topic, if that's what makes you happy, having bigger attendances then congrats, we'll make do with having Premier League football grace our pitch once again.

 

[nwgull]

He's already been mentioned, but it's worthwhile displaying this screen shot that I was saving for the next time a palace fan tried to bring up the crap about a fan wearing a 50/50 Arsenal/Brighton shirt at the cup game last year, but this seems as good a time as any to bring it up seeing as there's a pint at stake.

 

[Horses Arse]

So how do you excuse examples like this? A small row of fans who have season tickets at The Amex swapped their Brighton shirts for Liverpool shirts when you played them in the League Cup a couple of years back, I've never seen that at Selhurst. Not only that, how many of the WSL were on their feet applauding Steven Gerrard warming up? It was ludicrous to see.

I'm never going to deny that there are/were plenty of fans who didn't want to experience The Withdean week in, week out, that's a given. To suggest that around 20,000 were all thinking the same though is hard believable, is it? You have a huge number of new fans and kudos to you for bringing such a large number in, to say our support is somehow inferior though because we haven't managed to do so is irrelevant.

Congratulations for turning this thread into another attendance related topic, if that's what makes you happy, having bigger attendances then congrats, we'll make do with having Premier League football grace our pitch once again.

I don't think I excused the example provided by you. For what its worth the guys a prick in my opinion.

With regard to numbers excluded by withdean and before the precise number can't be defined but must be multiples of 20k. A whole generation of supporters at least.

As for supporters swapping shirts do behave! Not everything said on forums is true.

Wasn't meant to be an attendance thread and wouldn't have been raised at all if the palace attempt at hiding away from our resurgence wasn't to pretend we were all plastics. Basic jealousy, bit like me taking the piss out of your club's tin pot attempt at playing in the premiership; basic jealousy that we capitulated and you beat us on our own patch for one of the biggest prises in football.

All very simple really!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

So how do you excuse examples like this? A small row of fans who have season tickets at The Amex swapped their Brighton shirts for Liverpool shirts when you played them in the League Cup a couple of years back, I've never seen that at Selhurst. Not only that, how many of the WSL were on their feet applauding Steven Gerrard warming up? It was ludicrous to see.

I'm never going to deny that there are/were plenty of fans who didn't want to experience The Withdean week in, week out, that's a given. To suggest that around 20,000 were all thinking the same though is hard believable, is it? You have a huge number of new fans and kudos to you for bringing such a large number in, to say our support is somehow inferior though because we haven't managed to do so is irrelevant.

Congratulations for turning this thread into another attendance related topic, if that's what makes you happy, having bigger attendances then congrats, we'll make do with having Premier League football grace our pitch once again.

The 6000 that went to Withdean year in and year out were not the same 6000 people. There was a hard core of 4000 but some went a couple of times in 12 years, some a couple of times a season or only when it wasn't raining. That can easily amount to 20,000. We have 10,000 kids in Gully's Gang alone.

Were you at the Liverpool game as you seem to 'know' what went on? I was and didn't see any Liverpool shirts in the home areas.


Most Palace fans tell me that Matthew Simmons was a Fulham fan and you can easily spot the Man Utd badge.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

View attachment 46901
Most Palace fans tell me that Matthew Simmons was a Fulham fan and you can easily spot the Man Utd badge.

Eric Cantona was an early exponent of "Kick Out Racism"

An article from blogger/journo Darren Richman who wrote this on the Republik of Mancunia site earlier this year.



When Cantona Kicked That Racist… 18 Years Later
JANUARY 25, 2013 38 COMMENTS
Today marks eighteen years to the day since Eric Cantona launched himself into the stands at Selhurst Park and attempted to, quite literally, kick racism out of football. It was a watershed moment for the game in this country, an episode which split opinion and prompted hours of feverish debate. It is easy to see the moment as the JFK moment for a generation of United fans; where were you on the night of that infamous kung-fu kick? It’s always an easy question for me to answer – I was there.
I went to the game with my Dad, his friends Gary and Mark, and my brother, Robert. Robert was the odd one out since he was (and is) an Arsenal fan but in the years before his season ticket I suppose he was grateful to go to any football possible, particularly on a school night.
It was a cold night in South London and a nothing game. United were chasing their third title in a row but you wouldn’t know it from what was happening on the pitch. There were few chances of note and a distinct lack of rhythm to United’s play. Defender Richard Shaw (voted Crystal Palace ‘player of the year’ at the end of the season) was locked in a personal battle with Cantona, landing a series of kicks to the shin, mostly off the ball and entirely unpunished. As the teams trudged off at half time, Eric calmly inquired of referee Alan Wilkie, ‘No yellow cards, then?’ He repeated the question in the tunnel just before the teams remerged. Plain old Mr. Alex Ferguson was less polite: ‘Why don’t you do your ****ing job?’
In the 61st minute, Schmeichel punted the ball up field towards Cantona. Shaw kicked the Frenchman once again, the referee failed to notice once again. Eric, not for the final time that evening, decided to take the law into his own hands. He responded with a mildly petulant kick back. Shaw made the most of the minimal contact, the linesman flagged and Cantona saw red for the first time in six months.
Eric did not complain about the sending off. He accepted the decision and began to walk towards the tunnel and past the dugout. Fergie was looking the other way. At this point, the famous upturned collar was pulled down. Perhaps this meant he was no longer accountable for his actions, he had ceased viewing himself as a footballer, akin to Superman putting on a regular suit and transforming back into Clark Kent. Wilkie implored the players around him to ‘Calm down.’
Sensing that trouble was afoot, United’s kit man Norman Davies attempted to hurry along Cantona’s walk to the dressing room. The players would later nickname him ‘Vaseline’ after his first attempt to get hold of Eric failed. One thing he did manage to keep hold of was the No. 7 shirt worn on the night, an artefact he passed on to the Manchester United museum.
As a ten year old, it was difficult to see what exactly was happening. There was a good deal of swearing and a palpable tension in the air. We were about fifty yards to the right of the man in the awful leather jacket and the adults in our party could see something wasn’t right. As it transpired, Matthew Simmons had rushed down eleven rows of the stand to hurl abuse at the departing genius. He memorably informed The Sun his exact words were: ‘Off you go Cantona – it’s an early bath for you!’ More reliable witnesses have suggested it was closer to: ‘**** off, you mother****ing French *******.’
Eric had had enough. He broke free of Davies and flew over the hoardings foot first. This was closely followed by a punch before Davies, accompanied by Schmeichel and a Palace Steward, escorted Cantona past us (dodging various cups of tea thrown by spectators) and down the tunnel. The atmosphere had turned toxic by this point and my father sensibly informed me to do my jacket up. The segregation of fans was nowhere near as officiously policed as it is these days and I was one of many wearing a United top in the home section.
In the dressing room, Eric was still raging. He was determined to get back onto the pitch and continue where he left off. The genial Davies informed him: ‘If you want to go back on the pitch, you’ll have to go over my body, and break the door down.’ Eventually Davies, ever the polite Englishman, offered Cantona a cup of tea. The pair sipped their cuppas in total silence. Years later, when told of the kit man’s passing, Cantona was visibly moved and could utter little more than the words, ‘No, no, no, no.’
The game ended 1-1 and the walk back to the car was a strange one. My father and Mark were joking and I recall the suggestion that it was the first foot Eric had put right all game. Gary was less cheerful. He feared the punishment would be draconian and the two points dropped were likely to be the least of our worries in terms of winning the league. I asked my Dad whether what happened was likely to make the back page. He replied: ‘No, it’ll be on the front.’
He wasn’t wrong. The next morning saw the iconic football picture of the last twenty-five years grace the cover of every newspaper in the land. The tabloids were particularly venomous; a certain little England attitude towards foreigners was still overwhelmingly prevalent. Fortunately for Eric, his ‘victim’ was far from a Saint. Simmons, twenty, had been convicted for assault and, it turned out, was a BNP and National Front sympathiser. More amusingly, he was also a qualified referee. Richard Williams put it best in The Independent on Sunday: ‘You didn’t have to look very long and hard at Mr Matthew Simmons of Thornton Heath to conclude that Eric Cantona’s only mistake was to stop hitting him. The more we discovered about Mr Simmons, the more Cantona’s assault looked like the instinctive expression of a flawless moral judgement.’
Most ludicrously off all, Paul Ince was accused of inciting the crowd and assaulting another Palace fan. Gary, a keen letter writer and hater of injustice, contacted the appropriate authorities and ended up giving evidence in court. A number of players were present and, for seasons afterwards, whenever Andy Cole scored, Gary would inform us that he’d given him some tips whilst they’d been waiting in a back room with hot beverages. Better still, over the very same cup of tea, Fergie uttered the immortal words: ‘Gary, would you mind passing the sugar?’
Ince was proven innocent but Cantona was eventually sentenced to a nine-month ban. Ferguson claimed, ‘I don’t think any player in the history of football will get what he got – unless they had killed Bert Millichip’s (then FA chairman) dog. In court, Eric delivered one of the most famous lines in football history: ‘When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.’
Journalists and philosophers filled column inches attempting to decipher the words of this enigma with attitude but it was really quite simple. Eric, as was his wont both on and off the pitch, was taking the piss. The press were the seagulls, he was the trawler and the sardines represented a tasty soundbite. Basically he was suggesting that they wanted him to provide them with good copy and he wasn’t going to oblige. Except of course, he had, with a line so ingenious that it deflected attention away from the original act and allowed the legend to grow even greater. He would later claim that his lawyer had asked him to speak and he could just as easily have said, ‘The curtains are pink, but I love them.’ Once again, I suspect he was having a laugh.
The United manager, not for the final time, made the firm decision to back his player completely. Roy Keane, not always the most forthcoming in his praise for the boss (or anyone else), told Eamonn Dunphy: ‘I don’t think any other football man would have demonstrated the skill, resolve and strength that Alex Ferguson did managing the Cantona affair.’ That summer, when it appeared as though Cantona was destined to leave English football once and for all, Ferguson travelled to Paris. Yet again, the truth is stranger than fiction. In a bid to ditch his pursuers, Fergie was picked up by Cantona’s closest confidante on a motorbike. The image of the ageing manager winding his way through the French capital on the back of a Harley is almost as wonderful as the outcome. The pair sat in Eric’s hotel room and Fergie slowly talked him round before reminiscing about past glories and hopes for the future. Indeed, the man himself would later write: ‘Those hours spent in Eric’s company added up to one of the more worthwhile acts I have performed in this stupid job of mine.’
The league was lost on the final day that season, as was the FA Cup final. It is impossible to argue that Cantona would not have been the difference but to quibble about that is hardly the point. In doing what he did, Eric transformed himself from favourite player to greatest ever human in the eyes of an entire generation of United fans. It all added to the mystique. And without the ban, there would have been no glorious return. A single United player dominated the 1995/96 season perhaps more than any other before or since, culminating in the double and that cup final winner against Liverpool. Most ex pros and pundits have accepted an incident like that was bound to happen sooner or later. Match of the Day’s Jonathan Pearce, a Palace fan, is one of the few to have maintained his level of disgust at Cantona’s actions that day. It is one of many reasons I am still rather proud of this exchange from my first week of university:
Bloke: You like football, what do you think of Jonathan Pearce?
Me: He’s awful, one of the worst commentators around.
Bloke: He’s my uncle.
But I can’t possibly end there. Or with the fact that Matthew Simmons was last spotted assaulting the manager of his son’s junior football team in August 2010. No, the last word has to belong to the man himself.

 

[churley1]

The 6000 that went to Withdean year in and year out were not the same 6000 people. There was a hard core of 4000 but some went a couple of times in 12 years, some a couple of times a season or only when it wasn't raining. That can easily amount to 20,000. We have 10,000 kids in Gully's Gang alone.

Were you at the Liverpool game as you seem to 'know' what went on? I was and didn't see any Liverpool shirts in the home areas.

View attachment 46901


Most Palace fans tell me that Matthew Simmons was a Fulham fan and you can easily spot the Man Utd badge.

They are friends of my Dad, they didn't have any shame in admitting it either but each to their own, they are still paying customers at The Amex. Obviously there have been plenty of Palace games where I've seen away fans in the home sections but I'm not sure I've ever seen them at another Palace match supporting us.

I was always amazed at the support Cantona got and the stick Simmonds received. Regardless of who he supported, the only reason he received some vitriol hate is simply because of the vast number of glory hunters out there who refused to take their tongues out his Eric's arse.

Anyway, do you want Marange or what?

 

[churley1]

Eric Cantona was an early exponent of "Kick Out Racism"

An article from blogger/journo Darren Richman who wrote this on the Republik of Mancunia site earlier this year.



When Cantona Kicked That Racist… 18 Years Later
JANUARY 25, 2013 38 COMMENTS
Today marks eighteen years to the day since Eric Cantona launched himself into the stands at Selhurst Park and attempted to, quite literally, kick racism out of football. It was a watershed moment for the game in this country, an episode which split opinion and prompted hours of feverish debate. It is easy to see the moment as the JFK moment for a generation of United fans; where were you on the night of that infamous kung-fu kick? It’s always an easy question for me to answer – I was there.
I went to the game with my Dad, his friends Gary and Mark, and my brother, Robert. Robert was the odd one out since he was (and is) an Arsenal fan but in the years before his season ticket I suppose he was grateful to go to any football possible, particularly on a school night.
It was a cold night in South London and a nothing game. United were chasing their third title in a row but you wouldn’t know it from what was happening on the pitch. There were few chances of note and a distinct lack of rhythm to United’s play. Defender Richard Shaw (voted Crystal Palace ‘player of the year’ at the end of the season) was locked in a personal battle with Cantona, landing a series of kicks to the shin, mostly off the ball and entirely unpunished. As the teams trudged off at half time, Eric calmly inquired of referee Alan Wilkie, ‘No yellow cards, then?’ He repeated the question in the tunnel just before the teams remerged. Plain old Mr. Alex Ferguson was less polite: ‘Why don’t you do your ****ing job?’
In the 61st minute, Schmeichel punted the ball up field towards Cantona. Shaw kicked the Frenchman once again, the referee failed to notice once again. Eric, not for the final time that evening, decided to take the law into his own hands. He responded with a mildly petulant kick back. Shaw made the most of the minimal contact, the linesman flagged and Cantona saw red for the first time in six months.
Eric did not complain about the sending off. He accepted the decision and began to walk towards the tunnel and past the dugout. Fergie was looking the other way. At this point, the famous upturned collar was pulled down. Perhaps this meant he was no longer accountable for his actions, he had ceased viewing himself as a footballer, akin to Superman putting on a regular suit and transforming back into Clark Kent. Wilkie implored the players around him to ‘Calm down.’
Sensing that trouble was afoot, United’s kit man Norman Davies attempted to hurry along Cantona’s walk to the dressing room. The players would later nickname him ‘Vaseline’ after his first attempt to get hold of Eric failed. One thing he did manage to keep hold of was the No. 7 shirt worn on the night, an artefact he passed on to the Manchester United museum.
As a ten year old, it was difficult to see what exactly was happening. There was a good deal of swearing and a palpable tension in the air. We were about fifty yards to the right of the man in the awful leather jacket and the adults in our party could see something wasn’t right. As it transpired, Matthew Simmons had rushed down eleven rows of the stand to hurl abuse at the departing genius. He memorably informed The Sun his exact words were: ‘Off you go Cantona – it’s an early bath for you!’ More reliable witnesses have suggested it was closer to: ‘**** off, you mother****ing French *******.’
Eric had had enough. He broke free of Davies and flew over the hoardings foot first. This was closely followed by a punch before Davies, accompanied by Schmeichel and a Palace Steward, escorted Cantona past us (dodging various cups of tea thrown by spectators) and down the tunnel. The atmosphere had turned toxic by this point and my father sensibly informed me to do my jacket up. The segregation of fans was nowhere near as officiously policed as it is these days and I was one of many wearing a United top in the home section.
In the dressing room, Eric was still raging. He was determined to get back onto the pitch and continue where he left off. The genial Davies informed him: ‘If you want to go back on the pitch, you’ll have to go over my body, and break the door down.’ Eventually Davies, ever the polite Englishman, offered Cantona a cup of tea. The pair sipped their cuppas in total silence. Years later, when told of the kit man’s passing, Cantona was visibly moved and could utter little more than the words, ‘No, no, no, no.’
The game ended 1-1 and the walk back to the car was a strange one. My father and Mark were joking and I recall the suggestion that it was the first foot Eric had put right all game. Gary was less cheerful. He feared the punishment would be draconian and the two points dropped were likely to be the least of our worries in terms of winning the league. I asked my Dad whether what happened was likely to make the back page. He replied: ‘No, it’ll be on the front.’
He wasn’t wrong. The next morning saw the iconic football picture of the last twenty-five years grace the cover of every newspaper in the land. The tabloids were particularly venomous; a certain little England attitude towards foreigners was still overwhelmingly prevalent. Fortunately for Eric, his ‘victim’ was far from a Saint. Simmons, twenty, had been convicted for assault and, it turned out, was a BNP and National Front sympathiser. More amusingly, he was also a qualified referee. Richard Williams put it best in The Independent on Sunday: ‘You didn’t have to look very long and hard at Mr Matthew Simmons of Thornton Heath to conclude that Eric Cantona’s only mistake was to stop hitting him. The more we discovered about Mr Simmons, the more Cantona’s assault looked like the instinctive expression of a flawless moral judgement.’
Most ludicrously off all, Paul Ince was accused of inciting the crowd and assaulting another Palace fan. Gary, a keen letter writer and hater of injustice, contacted the appropriate authorities and ended up giving evidence in court. A number of players were present and, for seasons afterwards, whenever Andy Cole scored, Gary would inform us that he’d given him some tips whilst they’d been waiting in a back room with hot beverages. Better still, over the very same cup of tea, Fergie uttered the immortal words: ‘Gary, would you mind passing the sugar?’
Ince was proven innocent but Cantona was eventually sentenced to a nine-month ban. Ferguson claimed, ‘I don’t think any player in the history of football will get what he got – unless they had killed Bert Millichip’s (then FA chairman) dog. In court, Eric delivered one of the most famous lines in football history: ‘When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.’
Journalists and philosophers filled column inches attempting to decipher the words of this enigma with attitude but it was really quite simple. Eric, as was his wont both on and off the pitch, was taking the piss. The press were the seagulls, he was the trawler and the sardines represented a tasty soundbite. Basically he was suggesting that they wanted him to provide them with good copy and he wasn’t going to oblige. Except of course, he had, with a line so ingenious that it deflected attention away from the original act and allowed the legend to grow even greater. He would later claim that his lawyer had asked him to speak and he could just as easily have said, ‘The curtains are pink, but I love them.’ Once again, I suspect he was having a laugh.
The United manager, not for the final time, made the firm decision to back his player completely. Roy Keane, not always the most forthcoming in his praise for the boss (or anyone else), told Eamonn Dunphy: ‘I don’t think any other football man would have demonstrated the skill, resolve and strength that Alex Ferguson did managing the Cantona affair.’ That summer, when it appeared as though Cantona was destined to leave English football once and for all, Ferguson travelled to Paris. Yet again, the truth is stranger than fiction. In a bid to ditch his pursuers, Fergie was picked up by Cantona’s closest confidante on a motorbike. The image of the ageing manager winding his way through the French capital on the back of a Harley is almost as wonderful as the outcome. The pair sat in Eric’s hotel room and Fergie slowly talked him round before reminiscing about past glories and hopes for the future. Indeed, the man himself would later write: ‘Those hours spent in Eric’s company added up to one of the more worthwhile acts I have performed in this stupid job of mine.’
The league was lost on the final day that season, as was the FA Cup final. It is impossible to argue that Cantona would not have been the difference but to quibble about that is hardly the point. In doing what he did, Eric transformed himself from favourite player to greatest ever human in the eyes of an entire generation of United fans. It all added to the mystique. And without the ban, there would have been no glorious return. A single United player dominated the 1995/96 season perhaps more than any other before or since, culminating in the double and that cup final winner against Liverpool. Most ex pros and pundits have accepted an incident like that was bound to happen sooner or later. Match of the Day’s Jonathan Pearce, a Palace fan, is one of the few to have maintained his level of disgust at Cantona’s actions that day. It is one of many reasons I am still rather proud of this exchange from my first week of university:
Bloke: You like football, what do you think of Jonathan Pearce?
Me: He’s awful, one of the worst commentators around.
Bloke: He’s my uncle.
But I can’t possibly end there. Or with the fact that Matthew Simmons was last spotted assaulting the manager of his son’s junior football team in August 2010. No, the last word has to belong to the man himself.

Some of that, I didn't know to be fair regarding Simmonds. However, I find it bizarre how a Man Utd fan who was 10 years old at the time come up with an article like that? Proves my point that way too many condone what he did and were incredibly biased towards their idol, some of his Cantona's comments regarding the English in later years were just as bad.