‘I’d like to stay’ – Spurs loanee Percival wants to make permanent Crystal Palace switch after WSL promotion

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Tottenham Hotspur loanee Ria Percival wants to make a permanent move to Crystal Palace after securing promotion to the Women’s Super League.

The New Zealand record appearance-maker joined the SE25 outfit in the January transfer window until the end of the season as they pushed for promotion from the Women’s Championship and went on to appear in 11 games, including their 0-0 draw against Sunderland at Selhurst Park on Sunday which secured them the title.

And now the defender, who signed a contract extension with Spurs in January 2023 which runs until June 2025, wants to make the move permanent.

“I’ve just got to see what happens, have discussions with my agent and the club to see what the situation is, but I’d like to stay at Palace,” said Percival to the South London Press.

“It’s obviously a good feeling. I’ve loved every minute and I’m so proud of the team. I’m happy here, with the team and how I’m feeling, it would be great if I can stay here, but that’s a discussion that we’ll have moving forward, but I see Palace as my new home, so we just hope it all works out.”

The move up to the top-flight came for the South London team in their first season as a fully-professional outfit and next season they will play in the Barclays Women’s Super League for the very first time, going up against heavy-hitters like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.

But having played in the WSL since the 2018/19 season, Percival is convinced that despite the big step up, the club is ready on and off the pitch.

“The standard of the training facilities is amazing, and walking into them, you’ve probably got some better facilities than at some WSL clubs, so they’ve already got that set in place. The support that we have from the club towards the women’s team is amazing and it’s been nice to see – we’ve had the backing from everyone,” explained the 34-year-old.

“Still, what we have done probably wasn’t expected looking at the beginning of the season, but the strides we’ve made in the short space of time, the only way now is we just keep building, we keep focusing and just play the football that we have been playing this season and we’ll give a lot of teams a good run for their money.”

Percival was one of a number of loanees brought into the South London club as Eagles manager Laura Kaminski pushed for promotion with the former Charlton Athletic assistant coach praising the qualities of the Basildon-born defender in their successful promotion push.

“Having Ria in the building has added such value to the group – she’s been fundamental to the group,” said Kaminski to the South London Press. “Her experience – she’s been to World Cups, been an international footballer with a high amount of caps for New Zealand – she is an athlete with great professionalism and a fantastic role model who can share her experiences of football at the highest international and domestic level to help younger players.”

And that was a role that the former West Ham player embraced.

“It’s something I said I wanted to do coming in here,” explained Percival about her additional role agreed with Kaminski.

“I remember speaking to Laura when we first sat down [about the move]. I wanted to be able to bring something to the team and that was about how much I can help players, how much I can be valued and seen as someone they can look up to and ask questions to.

“I’ve managed to come in and do that and get good feedback from all the girls, but also just be able to give so much back to them and hopefully help them in develop any way they can.

“It’s a very unique team,” she added about the mix of youth, experience and loan players within the Palace squad. “How we’ve managed to come together like we have. How close we are. I haven’t had that feeling in a team in a long time and it’s something that you probably can’t describe, just how I feel in terms of how close the girls are on and off the pitch. We haven’t done too much team building, but it shows that we have come together and been a real team unit and strong.

“It shows in our performances and how we’ve managed to do what we’ve done this season – it’s been history for the club and that’s down to the girls sticking it out and putting on performances and playing good football as well.”

Playing good football was something Percival was keen to do as she enters the latter part of her career and having played just 10 games in the past two WSL seasons, due to her recovery from a knee injury and squad selection, she has relished the opportunity to play regularly, moving from back to being a full-back from her midfield position in North London.

“It just came about as me wanting to get more minutes, and since coming back from the 2023 World Cup, I wasn’t getting the minutes at Spurs,” explained Percival, who recently retired from international duty with New Zealand, where she made 166 senior appearances, appeared at four Olympic Games and five World Cups.

“I knew Laura from when she was working at Spurs, we made contact and she brought me in. I’m just thankful that she did and it’s been a great time here.

“The main thing was enjoying my football again,” added Percival, who was recently awarded the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. “To play and then get my smile back. I’ve done all those things since being here. Stepping into the club the first day, I already had it (smile) back. The feeling around the team and how I feel is a nice feeling.

“I played full back for a number of years and then changed to midfield, but it’s actually been nice, with how we play and the football we play [to move back to full back]. It gives me a chance to get on the ball a lot and get forward, so it’s been a good transition.

“It’s two years now since the injury and I’m feeling good. I’m getting my minutes and playing football week-in, week-out. It’s just showing that my body has still got a bit left in it to go, so, hopefully, we can kick on from this moving forward.”