‘Staying up with Crystal Palace is my proudest moment in football’ – Alassane N’Diaye on time at Eagles and ‘father figure’ Neil Warnock

Alassane N’Diaye had just begun the When Eagles Dare documentary when, in the first five minutes of episode one, he spotted himself dancing in the changing room.

The then 19-year-old was engrossed in the mayhem of Hillsborough, rocking the hinges of the small massage table in the centre of the room, clamouring over Johnny Ertl and Neil Danns while singing ‘We are staying up’ and ‘Ambrose is an Eagle.’

“Was that really me? I totally forgot I was up there,” laughs N’Diaye, who is reminiscing about what he calls his “favourite time in football.”

In a season that endured financial distress and chaos off the pitch after the club was placed into administration, it culminated in a fairytale ending with sheer everlasting pandemonium – it was quite the roller coaster for N‘Diaye’s first season in the professional game.

The midfielder’s journey in football could have been entirely different if, in 2007, Celtic agreed on a compensation fee with FC Alle for the then 16-year-old. Instead, after spending a year back in France with FC Sochaux-Montbeliard, Crystal Palace organised for the young midfielder to join the club’s reserve team.

“I couldn’t speak any English,” said N’Diaye. “When I came to London at 17, the only words I could use to speak with my team-mates were ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘I don’t understand.’ I knew Croydon because of travelling [to and from training], but I would only go to training and come back to my guesthouse – I only wanted to train and impress the Palace coaches.”

Although his favoured position was playing as a box-to-box midfielder, N’Diaye, who stood at a towering 6ft 5ins, was used as a centre-back and forward during his time on the fringes of the first-team squad.

“The first three months were very hard – learning a new culture, a new way of living, and expressing myself around the team. When you want to express yourself with words, and you cannot, it’s very hard.

“Gary Issott helped me a lot and was a very important man at Palace. He welcomed me into the club during my first month. Although I couldn’t speak English, Gary gave me time and helped me understand what he was teaching to the other players.

“All of the young players, Nathaniel Clyne, Wilf Zaha, Victor Moses, and Sean Scannell, came through under Gary. He put everyone in the same boat and worked with everyone to make them understand that football is not a joke and that you can be confident in the professional game.”

In the early days at Copers Cope training ground, N‘Diaye used winger and fellow French-speaking first-teamer Leandre Griffit to communicate with the squad.

While the summer whispers off the pitch problems had spiralled into outbursts, the lack of transfer activity gave Warnock the chance to look at N‘Diaye during pre-season. The pair instantly hit it off.

Warnock’s assistant manager Mick Jones, who likened N’Diaye to current Palace boss Patrick Vieira during his early days at the club, sanctioned the young Frenchman’s move to the first team.

“I was killing myself during pre-season. I didn’t even realise how much work I was putting in. I was like a machine during that point – wake up, play football, eat, sleep, and then play football again – but Warnock loved this.

“He was similar to a father figure – you never wanted to disappoint him. He only wanted to help me in my development – help the players to win games and make sure everyone was pulling in the same direction. My mentality was the same – we really understood each other.

“Warnock would say to me: ‘Eat them. Kill them,’ whenever we would talk about the opposition. He helped me understand that I shouldn’t be scared on the pitch, despite being a youngster.”

After a successful pre-season, Warnock entrusted the young Frenchman with the starting spot alongside Shaun Derry in the centre of midfield for the opening game of the season against Plymouth.

N’Diaye says he will “never forget” making his debut at Selhurst Park.

“I can’t describe it. It felt like I had arrived at a place where I had worked so hard to get to. It was so stressful because you wanted to do well and make sure there were no mistakes. Thankfully, Derry was talking to me throughout the game. He told me to get focused for the first 45 minutes, see how I am doing at half-time, and then prepare again for the second.

“Even during the first half, he told me to stay focused 20 minutes at a time. Derry helped me so much. It was simple words, but he was so helpful.

N’Diaye continued to get to grips with the demanding nature of Championship football, playing in every game bar one for the opening three months of the season. His start to life in Palace’s first team was boosted by scoring his first goal for the club away at West Brom, followed up by his second two games later in the 4-1 win against Blackpool.

Midway through N’Diaye’s first season in the men’s side, the cash-strapped Crystal Palace could no longer continue haemorrhaging money – and on January 26, 2010, Simon Jordan was forced to place the club into administration.

“Everyone believed we would stay in the league – we were focused and trying to fight for survival. This mentality was unbreakable. Shaun was the best captain I ever had, and he would always stay positive. Because we were so determined to stay in the league, we would clash all the time in training.”

When asked which players would regularly clash, N’Diaye chuckles before saying proudly: “Me. I would be the one clashing the most – I would clash with half the team!

“But it was our team’s spirit – that was our identity. Everyone wanted to stand up and be counted. I was the ‘French one’, so I had to stand up for myself.

“Derry wouldn’t let us drop our heads. I have never seen someone like him in my whole life. The job he did to pull us together and keep us as one, you never see this in football. Most of the time, players are selfish, but he was a real captain.

“He could tell me ‘well done,’ and then want to kill me five minutes later. He was correct in everything he did – life and football.”

When Warnock eventually parted ways with the club to join league rivals QPR, N’Diaye says: “That’s when everything went wrong for me.”

He explained: “Warnock was the one who believed in me and gave me the trust to express myself. It affected me professionally and personally.

“He saw something in me that not many people noticed. When people saw me play, they had a preconceived idea that I was just strong and could smash players out of the way because I was big and black. But Warnock saw more – he saw my technical ability. He was the best teacher.”

Paul Hart would sporadically use N’Diaye to see out games.

He would bring him on with minutes remaining to help drag the club over the line to secure vital wins against Sheffield United and draws against Derby and Blackpool, with the then French 19-year-old picking up a yellow card in all three games during his combined 24 minutes on the pitch.

Despite scoring a crucial header in the 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, which bought Palace within a point of safety with five games remaining, N’Diaye’s telling contribution would come away at Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the season.

“In the build-up to the game, I honestly thought I would be starting – I was in the first team the whole week in training,” says N’Diaye.

“The night before the game, Paul Hart called me up to his room and told me: “You’re not going to start tomorrow, but I need you. You need to be ready for when I call you to come on the pitch.”

N’Diaye adds: “That’s all I needed and wanted from a manager – honesty.”

He replaced Calvin Andrew in the 61st minute and, with his first touch, delicately flicked the ball down the line for Sean Scannell, who played the ball back to the waiting Darren Ambrose on the edge of the area – 2-1 Palace.

He can still name every player who was a part of the survival season. N’Diaye can’t wrap his head around how Alan Lee would barely do any training and score so many goals.

He knew straight away from his first few training sessions with Nathaniel Clyne and Wilfried Zaha that they were special talents. And, although it’s turned to laughter, he is still perplexed at how Stern John missed an open goal against Sheffield Wednesday to kill off any last-minute nerves.

Asked to describe his emotions on the full-time whistle, knowing that result meant that Crystal Palace had a remote possibility of avoiding liquidation, he exclaimed: “Wow. I can’t put these emotions into words. This is the best feeling I have ever had in football. I wish everyone could experience this feeling just once in their lives.”

Despite playing a handful of games under George Burley, Dougie Freedman’s appointment signalled the end of N’Diaye’s Palace career. And after two frustrating loan spells at Southend and Swindon, N’Diaye attempted to resurrect his game in the lower depths of the football pyramid.

“I don’t want to say bad things, but when Dougie Freedman came in, I wasn’t in the plans any more. What could I say? He had the power to decide who to play. When a club doesn’t want you anymore, you take your boots and leave.”

He spent time at Barnet before dropping down to the conference with Hayes & Yeading and Hasting United.

“This was so tough,” said N’Diaye. “When you arrive at clubs like this, they expect something from you. They saw that I had played games in the Championship, so as soon as you have the ball, they expect you to take the ball past five players and score. It was so hard.”

After 12 games at Hastings United, N’Diaye, crestfallen at his rapid drop down from Championship football to the conference south in a matter of two years, decided to use football to explore the world.

He explained: “When I started playing football, I always thought: “I want to play in the Premier League and be a big player,” but when I found out that the dream was all over, I decided to use football to travel. It allowed me to feel free again after the disappointment of leaving Palace.

“I have learnt to always give your best, no matter where you are or who you are playing. Every day is a fight, not only in football but in life. You could be playing a young Bulgarian player making his debut, or it could be Carlos Tevez in the League Cup at Selhurst Park.”

Offered a trial by the manager of Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the Bulgarian first division while playing football with his friends in France, N’Diaye travelled with no more than a pair of boots and his essentials to begin his second voyage in search of establishing himself in professional football.

Boarding a one-way flight from Paris to Plovdiv, a town with fewer than 350,000 people, N’Diaye says: “I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t know the country or whether it would be safe enough to bring my family over there.

“I knew that I would succeed in football, but I was more scared about my life and whether it would be safe.

“You saw what happened when England came to Bulgaria to play, so you have to be ready for these kinds of things.”

When asked if he experienced any racial abuse, N’Diaye, who was born in France to Senegalese parents, repeats “yes” multiple times before explaining: “Every season I played there, I had some problems.”

As N’Diaye’s voice, which had just been euphorically talking about his time at Selhurst Park, disappears into a disappointed and distressed tone. The now 31-year-old explained: “Bulgaria was a beautiful country with the majority of people very welcoming to me straight away.

“But at football, they would make monkey chants. Sometimes opposition players would confront you with horrible words, too. You have to be strong, and I realised that now everyone in Bulgaria wasn’t like this. But it was only a minority.

“If I replied to them, it would give them what they were looking for. It can hurt me, but I am stronger than you. Most of the people who did this were just stupid people who wanted to come to the stadium to shout and express themselves. They don’t have any logic in their life – they just need to act stupid for five minutes.

“I don’t know why they do it. It’s bizarre – it makes no sense. It’s an ugly part of football, but it’s there. It will always be there. Hopefully, with time, it will disappear.”

N’Diaye spent two years in Bulgaria, where he reached the semi-finals of their equivalent of the FA Cup with Plovdiv, before jetting off to Khazakstan.

Spells in Ukraine, Lithuania, back in Bulgaria, France, and most recent Kuwait, have followed for N’Diaye since 2016.

Despite leaving Palace more than a decade ago and playing for 14 different sides since he left South London, it’s still the club where N’Diaye has the most appearances to his name to date.

“I loved my time at Palace. England is the country made for me to play football. Staying up with Palace is my proudest moment in football. It was a special team. I will always have the club.

“When you see the club, get to see the people making so many sacrifices for the club, and it’s indescribable. Even when I am 50-years old, I hope to come to watch Palace play again.”