Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew won’t leave Selhurst Park after seeing West Ham’s problems with London Stadium move
Eagles plotting to expand current ground by 10,000 seats and don't want to cause unrest amongst fans
CRYSTAL PALACE will press on with plans to redevelop Selhurst Park — after the problems West Ham have had settling in at their new stadium.
The Eagles host the Hammers this evening, with the visitors probably glad to be playing away.
The Irons’ start to life at the London Stadium — after their emotional move from Upton Park in May — has not exactly gone to plan, with poor displays on the pitch and punch-ups between fans off it.
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Palace hope to avoid all this by revamping their current stadium, instead of moving into a new one.
Boss Alan Pardew said: “I’ve had conversations with the chairman Steve Parish and we’ve talked about what it would be like if we took it away from Selhurst.
“We wouldn’t want to do that and I am sure West Ham were of the same opinion. But sometimes the financial benefits are such that you have to consider it.
“Even so, our thoughts at the moment are to redevelop Selhurst and there is a strong commitment with the new owners to do that.
“I don’t think Steve would mind me telling you that our fans could expect to see something in the pipeline soon because the stadium needs to come up in standard for sure.”
Palace are a long way down the line in talks with the council about redeveloping Selhurst Park, which was first built in 1924 and is a bit rough around the edges.
The Eagles want to increase its capacity from 25,000 to at least 35,000 — far less than West Ham’s new home, which can seat up to 66,000 supporters.
But the Hammers’ move to a bigger stadium has led to arguments and fights between long-time fans who were regulars at Upton Park and ‘newbies’ who snapped up the low-cost season tickets offered by the club in a bid to put bums on seats.
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There has also been violence outside the ground between opposing fans at all four Premier League home games so far this term. The mood in and around what was the London Stadium has not been helped by West Ham’s performances.
Slaven Bilic’s side sit third bottom of the table with just one league win.
Former Hammers boss Pardew said: “Moving stadium is always difficult because you are taking away years and years of tradition of West Ham fans taking their sons and grandchildren to Upton Park. I had the same experience at Reading when we moved from Elm Park to the Madejski.
“It takes a while to settle in and some fans are going to find it difficult and understandably so because your heritage and history are suddenly based somewhere else. It is problematic for every club but they will find a way.”
Christian Benteke will line up for Palace today after surely the greatest week of his life.
Pardew said: “He scored the fastest goal in World Cup qualifying history, hit a hat-trick for Belgium and then had a baby girl on Thursday.
“It has been a special week and he has a big smile on his face, which is always good with strikers because they can be a bit moody!”