‘Steve Parish could manipulate Woody Johnson to open his chequebook at Crystal Palace’
Crystal Palace have been warned that new shareholder Woody Johnson will be tough to deal with, and won’t be heavily investing in the club.
Johnson bought John Textor’s 43% stake in the Eagles to help solve a controversial situation that could’ve prevented the club from competing in the Europa League.
Textor’s majority ownership of both Palace and Lyon proved to be an issue, due to UEFA‘s rules on multi-club ownership.
The South London side qualified for Europe for the first ever time, after beating Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final.
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – has his doubts about the takeover, due to Johnson’s time in charge of the New York Jets in the United States.
‘Johnson may anger Palace fans’, says Wyness
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted that Johnson will be a tough owner to deal with for the Palace fans, as he won’t be “opening up his chequebook” at every opportunity.
However, Wyness did say that the 78-year-old may be interested in the potential stadium development.
Crystal Palace’s expansion of Selhurst Park has long been talked about, and last summer, permission was granted to add 5,000 seats.
Speaking about Johnson, Wyness told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “The jury’s still out about what he’s going to be like. He’s known to be a very hard, bare-knuckle owner.
“With the Jets, he’s not entirely popular with the fans. You’ve seen the Glazers and the problems they’ve had with Man United fans.
“Woody Johnson, I don’t think he’s quite Glazer territory, but he’s certainly going to be tough to deal with. He isn’t going to be going in there opening up the checkbook, that’s for sure.
“The one thing that may interest him is a new stadium build. That would be the big news for me if I were a Palace fan.
“I know that there was talk about the stadium expansion at Selhurst Park, I believe that that’s become very expensive and isn’t going to produce the yield that they’d be looking for initially because the costs have expanded.
“If he gets into it and he starts to love Palace and really starts to understand it, as he has done for the Jets, and Steve can actually manipulate him to get some money out of him, then it’s better days for Palace.”
Marc Guehi has ‘concerns’ over Liverpool move
Meanwhile, Football Insider exclusively revealed that Marc Guehi is in no real rush to make a decision on a move away from Crystal Palace amid “concerns” over joining Liverpool.
The centre-back, 24, will enter the final 12 months of his Selhurst Park contract next week.
However, the England international will weigh up the move carefully with Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk likely to be ahead of him in the pecking order at Anfield
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