To be Frank, Barca vision is laughable
RONALD DE BOER believes his twin brother Frank will have Crystal Palace playing like Barcelona next season.
Which must have raised a laugh among Palace fans who recalled this headline on a London newspaper last August: “Alan Pardew eager for Crystal Palace to adopt tiki-taka style for new Premier League season.”
And these words below it: “Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew has promised a new brand of football this season with a slant towards the tikitaka style pioneered by reigning La Liga champions Barcelona.”
Four months later the Wembley dance act was sacked after getting the Eagles mired in the relegation zone and the least Barcelona manager ever, Sam Allardyce, was hired to keep them up.
At his unveiling, Frank himself broadened out the purist dream by saying he wanted to see Palace playing like the great past Dutch masters.
“Ajax is famous for Total Football. We try to dominate the same way,” he said. ‘‘If we have the right spirit then it can happen very quickly but normally it can take four or five months.”
Good luck lighting up Selhurst Park with your free-flowing utopian vision, Frank.
And remember if your plans for Total Football crash and burn, there’s always Fireman Sam on standby come Christmas to put out the blaze.