Tshabalala forced to play the waiting game

For anyone interested in whether Siphiwe Tshabalala is actually going to end up at Crystal Palace, the last few days have been confusing to say the least.

The Bafana Bafana midfielder spent a week at Palace's training ground in Beckenham earlier this month in the hope of impressing Dougie Freedman enough to win a move to the UK. According to his agent Jazzman Mahlakgane, 'Shabba' was informed that Freedman was very interested in signing him on a free transfer before he returned to South Africa.

A week later and with no news from Palace, though, Tshabalala's club Kaizer Chiefs issued a statement that said he would be signing a new three-year deal with them after the weekend that has just passed - a claim that was strongly refuted by Mahlakgane in the South African media. Sure enough, at the time of writing, no new contract has been signed after Freedman admitted in a press conference this morning that any move to sign him may rest on other players leaving the club.

All of which leaves Tshabalala in a bit of a dilemma. Having opened up a series of fish and chip shops (a venture that has included appearances on billboards around Johannesburg), he's not short of a few bob already and any offer of a new contract from Chiefs is likely to involve a hefty signing-on fee and substantial salary.

Unless they reach the Carling Cup Final or accept an offer for one of the club's coveted young stars like Nathaniel Clyne or Wilfried Zaha, that is likely to be more than Palace are willing to offer. As a top-earner in the South African PSL, Tshabalala could command wages of at least £6,000 a month (paying only 40% tax), with the signing on fee for such a crucial contract in his career ensuring he could expand the takeaway empire across South Africa and beyond.

Yet his willingness to attend trials at Forest last year and brave the English winter in south London suggest that he has bigger fish to fry. Seeing the success of compatriot Kagisho Dikgacoi in English football's second tier has given Tshabalala the appetite to prove himself on a foreign stage and he knows this may be his last chance to do that.

European clubs are unlikely to pay a transfer fee for a player who is tied into such an expensive contract and, at 27, is entering the final stage of his career, meaning Mahlakgane has been forced to play a dangerous waiting game. The whole saga should unfold over the next few days but Tshabalala will have his fingers crossed that his time has finally arrived.  

Shabba and Spider set for Palace's Bafana revolution?

They say all good news comes in pairs but if things go to plan, Crystal Palace could have three Bafana Bafana internationals on their books before too long.

Destined to be forever known as the player who scored the first goal of 2010 World Cup after a slide-rule pass from Kagisho Dikgacoi, Siphiwe Tshabalala arrived in the UK on Wednesday in the hope of resuming the partnership permanently in south London.

So far, all parties have maintained their silence since the news was broken by a statement from the 27-year-old's club Kaizer Chiefs earlier this week. But a conversation with Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune - also said to be wanted on trial by Dougie Freedman in the statement - confirmed that 'Shabba' will begin his 10-day trial on Thursday morning.

He could hardly have picked a better time to arrive. With the Carling Cup semi-final against Cardiff City to come and rumours linking prized assets Wilfried Zaha and Nathaniel Clyne with moves in the January transfer window, Tshabalala has a real opportunity to show he is worth the risk of a tranfser fee that is likely to be considerably less than the 1.5 million euros Chiefs had previously been holding out for.

A failed trial at Nottingham Forest last year will certainly have lessened expectations, while persistent injury problems are also a big problem. On his day, though, Tshabalala is capable of unlocking the best of defences with his pace and trickery and possesses excellent delivery from set-pieces thanks to that famous left foot.

Bafana team-mate Morgan Gould also had a chance to join Palace in the summer but was undone by his lack of experience. That shouldn't be a problem for a player who has captained his country several times and amassed more than 70 caps already, yet a lack of physical strength may be found out in the rough and tumble of the Championship.

Remarkably, there's even the prospect of another Bafana player joining Tshabalala and Dikgacoi in south London. Khune seemed in the dark about any details of his proposed trial but admitted he had been following Palace's progress this season because of Dikgacoi, saying he had particularly enjoyed the win over Manchester United in the Carling Cup quarter-final.

Whether he gets the opportunity remains to be seen, especially given Julian Speroni's untouchable status as Freedman's first-choice. At 24, 'Spiderkid' still has plenty of time to make a move to Europe and prove he is capable of living up to the praise of Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel lavished on him after last summer's tour to South Africa.

"He’s not that tall but you can see the spring he has in his legs, that makes up for it and I think he can be able to manoeuvre himself around the goal just fine," said the US veteran.

"The thing that stands out is his distribution. It’s outstanding for such a young guy - at 24, he is still very young for a goalkeeper and as long as he keeps working hard he can only get better and better." 

And after beating Chiefs 3-2 as they became the first foreign club to play in South Africa following their readmittance to Fifa in July 1992, it would be apt for another two of the country's most popular current players to end up in the red and blue of Crystal Palace.

Fans stand up to Premier Greed

On Saturday at 3pm, fans of the Football League's 72 clubs will make a stand against plans to radically transform the academy system in England. After the controversial Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) was ratified by a vote held last week, leaflets asking supporters to boycott the first five minutes of this weekend's matches were handed out across the country in an attempt to show their widespread opposition.

 

Entitled 'Hands off our Academies' and using the slogan 'Premier Greed', the protest will seek to highlight how the new laws could eventually threaten the very existence of clubs outside the top-flight. But while the issue briefly flirted with the back pages last week, the furore over John Terry's alleged racism and the latest developments surrounding Carlos Tevez mean this issue has already been forgotten by the national press.

 

And although it may be of little concern to fans of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, for those who depend on selling homegrown players every season or two just to balance the books, there is every reason to feel aggrieved.

 

The new rules have been devised by the FA Premier League's head of youth Ged Roddy and, unsurprisingly, there is no doubting which clubs stand to benefit. A four-tier system based purely on existing financial resources means that only the richest will be selected as Category One academies and they will be allowed to pick the cream of the country's crop to come and stay in new imitations of Barcelona's famous La Masia academy.

 

But it's the plans for a new compensation system that will mean a significant reduction in the fees Football League clubs can command for their young players that have caused most uproar. This means Chelsea will be able to pluck a promising youth player from a lower league club at the age of 14 and be faced with a bill of no more than £50,000 (especially relevant given they have reportedly just offered nearly £2 million for England schoolboy Oluwaseyi Ojo from MK Dons)

 

That is particularly bad news for clubs like Crystal Palace, who currently have 11 homegrown players in their first-team squad of 33. Of those, four are now regulars under manager Dougie Freedman but it remains to be seen whether the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Jonny Williams would have emerged under the new system.

 

Certainly, the most outstanding youth players will be taken away from their homes and given five-star treatment at the new academies. But with the competition for places in even the most mediocre Premier League teams hotter than ever these days, the majority will never get the chance to play at the highest level and will inevitably end up dropping down (or even out of) the pyramid.

 

Surely that compares badly with the progress of Williams and Zaha, who are now growing up fast courtesy of playing regularly in the Championship? Palace has been the springboard for numerous current Premier League players including Victor Moses, Ben Watson and Wayne Routledge - each of whom played more than 100 games for the club that nurtured them.

 

They all left with considerable experience of first-team football but this may become a thing of the past for the next generation of emerging talent.

 

On the same day that the EPPP vote was passed, I was at a press conference to announce a new link-up between Palace and a local school designed to increase the amount of time they can devote to coaching their most promising young players.

 

The irony was certainly not lost on assistant manager Lennie Lawrence and academy boss Gary Issott, although they insisted the new laws would not affect their reputation for producing stars of the future. But if the Premier League get their way, the next Wilfried Zaha will be snapped up before Palace fans have even had a chance to see him play.

 

  

As good as Gould

Being rejected is one of the worst feelings in the world. But it's a measure of the man that Morgan Gould decided to take my call earlier on today when the news that he hadn't quite made the grade at Selhurst Park was confirmed.

I've been speaking to the Bafana Bafana defender via his compatriot Kagisho Dikgacoi's phone since he arrived on trial at Crystal Palace last week and he must have groaned when the phone rang on his way to the airport. Most people would probably have just ignored it and got their head down before the long fight back to South Africa but Morgan answered, gave me a couple of quotes for Kickoff's website and tried to sound as upbeat as possible.

He was obviously disappointed having pinned his hopes on a move to Europe but it seems the price-tag of around  £500,000 was just too much of a stretch for Palace. Manager Dougie Freedman had to pretty much beg chiarman Steve Parish to release the funds to purchase KG from Fulham earlier his month and quotes from the Croydon Advertiser's website confirmed that he felt it was just too much for a player who has never played for a club outside his native country.

Pre-season matches against Basingstoke Town and Wycombe Wanderers were probably not enough to really test him, although Freedman knows he must live or die by decisions like this one. Gould nonetheless has taken the blow on the chin and is still hopeful that he may find a new club before the start of the new season, with plenty in South Africa certainly keen.

Europe remains the ideal destination though and even though he has undoubted pedigree as an established international, his age and the transfer fee in these depressed times make things difficult. Agent Glyn Binkin has often spoken about interest from Russia in the past so maybe there is some hope for him.

For Palace, the quest for a new centre back goes on. Rumours that Antony Gardner could be on his way would certainly explain Freedman's reluctance to offer Gould a deal, while French defender Francois Marque could be a much cheaper option with Champions League experience.

But, sadly, the prospect of two Bafana players turning out every week for the Eagles will have to wait.
Unless Freedman fancies a punt on fish and chip empresario Siphiwe Tshabalala, that is? Palace could certainly do with a bit of extra bite in midfield.

You can see my interview with Morgan Gould for Kickoff at http://www.kickoff.com/news/23106/crystal-palace-reject-morgan-gould-move.php

Dan Jones' Croydon Advertiser article is here: http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Freedman-decides-Gould-isn-t-right-man-Eagles/story-12974196-detail/story.html
    

Bafana Bafana take over Selhurst Park

It's been a momentous couple of days if you're a Crystal Palace fan with a soft-spot for Bafana Bafana.

Hot on the heels of the confirmation that Kagisho Dikgacoi has signed a three-year deal at Selhurst Park on Monday http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14023074.stm, I heard a rumour that central defender Morgan Gould has been invited for a trial in south London on Tuesday morning.

A call to SuperSport United's Chief Operations Officer Jose Ferreira backed up the rumour and it seems the 28-year-old from Soweto whose father was also a professional player should be at Palace's training ground at Beckenham next week: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_7021360,00.html

I had a brief chat with Morgan later that day and he seemed very excited about the prospect of coming to England. He preferred not to go on the record just yet but I'm sure he will be desperate to show what he can do after a brilliant end to his season with club and country.

If all goes to plan, Palace could certainly be on to a winner. At 28, Gould  was a pretty late developer at his first club Jomo Cosmos - much like the Eagles themselves a 'yo-yo' club that is famed for nurturing raw talent (they even wear red and blue for good measure!).

Owned by former playing legend and Bafana coach Jomo Sono, the likes of Benjani, Mark Fish, MacBeth Sibaya and Katlego Mphela are just a few of the names to have gone on to bigger and better things since the larger-than-life Sono bought a club that had played in a 'whites-only' league and re-branded it using his own name back in 1992.

Six years under his watchful eye eventually paid off for Gould when he joined SuperSport United in 2008 and proceeding to play a major role in their march to three successive South African league titles. But a disastrous injury on the day they won the third title back in February 2010 eventually ended his World Cup dream as then club-mate Bongani Khumalo took his place in the squad and eventually the starting line-up.

Despite the obvious heartache of missing a World Cup on home soil, Morgan was always approachable for an interview and was positive about the future rather than dwelling on the past.

Having previously been linked with a move to Spurs himself, Gould saw his good friend and current Bafana central defensive partner Bongani snapped up by Harry Redknapp instead and endured a poor start to the domestic season in South Africa on his return from injury. Slowly his form returned though and his ability finally gave national team boss Pitso Mosimane the opportunity to do something that most South African fans had been waiting for a very long time - drop captain Aaron Mokoena.

A man-of-the-match display against Egypt in March as Bafana defeated the triple African champions 1-0 in a crucial qualifier was followed by another superb display alongside inexperienced partner Siyabonga Sangweni in Cairo on June 6. That should have been enough to alert some interest in Gould but, aside from some links with unnamed Russian clubs, the invitation from Crystal Palace is the only offer that has been made public.

According to Croydon Advertiser's Daniel Jones @advertisersport on Twitter, Palace boss Dougie Freedman confirmed his interest on Wednesday afternoon so time will tell how this story progresses. But with his mate KG already signed up, there could be a sharp rise in vuvuzela sales in south London before the start of the new season..