Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace: Dan Cook mulls over potential takeover deal

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Crystal Palace podcaster Dan Cook has suggested during his most recent HLTCO podcast that he ‘wouldn’t rule out’ Steve Parish getting money for his stake in the club.

This comes after rumours this week of a possible American takeover of the Eagles have been circulating, with murmurs that American businessman John Textor has an interest in buying the club, with rumours that Josh Harris and David Blitzer are considering selling their shares which they bought in 2015.

During the most recent HLTCO podcast, Cook praised Parish but refused to ‘rule out’ the Palace owner from selling his shares…

“I can’t imagine, to be honest, that Steve Parish, even if he does want out, I can’t imagine that he’s going to allow 11, 12 years of his life working every single day, to be blown up in a puff of smoke because he’s just willing to sell to a buyer that may well take the club to wrack and ruin.

“I think if you look at the overall arc of Steve Parish, his involvement with Crystal Palace, the fact that he has supported the club since he was four, the fact that he stepped in when we were about to go into liquidation, he’s clearly not going to want to see the club on dodgy ground after putting all of this effort in to get the Category One academy to keep us in the Premier League, to get us to the Premier League in the first place.

“He’s not just going to hand the keys over and say ‘do what you want with it’. It’s not like building a business up from scratch and getting paid off a few million pounds and waving goodbye and not having an emotional attachment. Football clubs aren’t quite like that. So I’d certainly be intrigued to know the dynamics of any deal that does see Steve Parish sell his stake in the football club.

“I wouldn’t rule out him potentially getting money for his stake but still being involved in the day-to-day running of the football club in some way, and even if he isn’t, I’m sure if he does agree to sell the football club to a consortium of American investment, there will be huge amounts of money available to us compared to what we currently have with Parish, Blitzer and Harris.

“I think it’s tricky to know, really, because if you look at the overall value of those three, they are in the billions – not necessarily Steve Parrish – but certainly Blitzer and Harris have the lion’s share of that financial muscle, but it’s a case of actually being willing to spend it.”

TIF Thoughts on the proposed Crystal Palace takeover…

Parish took over Crystal Palace in 2010, with Harris and Blitzer following in 2015 when the two bought shares in the Eagles. Parish told Crystal Palace’s official website that the club aimed to ‘hit the financial bracket with clubs like Everton, Newcastle, Aston Villa, West Ham and Leeds.’

It could be argued that they have at least made some headway in that regard, with the club spending a club-record £27m on Christian Benteke in 2016, and have remained in the Premier League since their promotion-winning campaign of 2012/13, so there has undoubtedly been tangible success for the club under Parish.

The Eagles owner has an 18% ownership in the club, and if the consortium decides to buy him out along with other small shareholders, the overall acquisition price may be in the region of £200 million.

However, judging by what Cook has to say, it seems that even if his future at the helm was to come into question, the club would at the very least be left in a safe pair of hands.

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