Roy Hodgson hoping Crystal Palace invest more heavily in ‘rejuvenating’ first-team squad

With the season drawing to a close and Crystal Palace having secured a club-record ninth consecutive season in the Premier League, Roy Hodgson believes that the summer window will present a good opportunity for the South Londoners to revamp their squad.

The Eagles have yet to secure the immediate futures of a large chunk of their first-team playing staff, with several key members such as Christian Benteke, Joel Ward and Gary Cahill all out of contract from the start of July.

But Hodgson, who looks increasingly likely to depart Selhurst Park at the end of the season himself, believes that the squad needs ‘rejuvenation’ ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.

When the 73-year-old – who has been extremely vocal in recent weeks about the need for crucial investment in the side – was asked whether he hopes that the Eagles’ hierarchy will finally give the squad the revamp it has been yearning for, Hodgson said: “Absolutely. I hope so.

“Every transfer window, I’ve hoped there would be a bit of investment available because these players have been together a long time, and we haven’t really brought in that much new blood to help the guys who are there and to provide them perhaps with some inspiration – the club hasn’t been able to do that so often.

“We spent money on Eberechi Eze in the summer, which I thought was money well spent. And I’m pretty certain that the club would very much like to spend further sums of money to get further players of that type to rejuvenate the squad and make it a little bit easier for the guys who have been carrying the torch for so long. Whether or not that is a possibility, we’ll find out.”

Hodgson, who has a negative net spend in the transfer market during his four years as Crystal Palace boss, added: “This isn’t just a manager bleating that it would be nice to have a bit more money to spend – it’s not a question of that at all. That’s not been the case since I have been here.

“Everything has been explained to me, what can and cannot be done [in the transfer market], and I have happily gone along with what can and cannot be done, knowing full well that all of us would have like to have done a bit more.

“This will be a good summer, in my opinion, to look into that aspect because staying in this league doesn’t get any easier. It might be easy for Man City, Chelsea and Man United, but for a good 50 or 60 per cent of us, we don’t regard it as easy.

“At the start of their seasons, nobody expected Watford or Sheffield United to go down – it can happen because that is the strength of the League.

“If you don’t want it to happen to you, then you can’t be blind to it and say, ‘We’ll be okay, we’ve had eight seasons here – we’ll be fine.’ You can’t say that. You have to make certain that you are as well prepared going into the ninth season as you were going into that first season some nine years ago.”