Dan Cook has been heaping praise on Crystal Palace and their Under 21 side after recording an emphatic midweek victory.
With Crystal Palace’s first team having not kicked a ball in a competitive fixture since September 3rd when they drew against Newcastle United 0-0, it’s been the club’s youth sides that have been able to take centre stage.
None more so than their Under 21 team who took on Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening and managed to record a very impressive 7-2 victory against the Parisian outfit which led Cook to heap huge praise on the club’s youngsters.
Cook was left very excited and impressed by the Under 21s’ latest huge victory which he spoke about on the HLTCO podcast.
(4:00) “I think it’s proved over the course of last night [Wednesday] that the strength in depth Crystal Palace have at academy level is incredible and as much as PSG fans, quite understandably, will point to the fact that they didn’t have a full strength side, in fact, far from it, neither did we.
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“Whenever you can put seven goals past an opponent is a fantastic result when you do it to a club as illustrious as PSG it’s a real line in the sand and I think it does act as a boost for everyone associated with the football club.
“We got the victory in the first international game of the season against Hertha Berlin and this is very much a definitive one and I think it pushes us to another echelon.”
TIF Thoughts Palace’s academy set up…
It was a huge scalp for Palace’s Under 21s to claim on Wednesday night to beat a side such as PSG who will and continue to pump millions into their academy to try and find the best talent not just in France, but across the world.
Palace themselves, however, are doing their best to ensure they have a conveyer belt of young prospects coming into the first team having spent millions on a new state of the start academy facility for their youth sides.
With a luxurious training facility for the academy players to help them grow and develop both on and off the pitch and examples such as Wilfried Zaha, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Tyrick Mitchel having made it into the first team, there’s no reason as to why more youngsters won’t want to go and play for Palace and grow with the club.