Martin Kelly Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace defender Martin Kelly says it is time to deliver entertainment to the fans and that “exciting” players like Marc Guehi and Michael Olise can help them implement Patrick Vieira’s new style. Palace are unbeaten in pre-season with 1-0 wins against Walsall and Ipswich before the 2-2 draw against Charlton in the manager’s first game at Selhurst Park. Goals from Under-23s stars Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Scott Banks helped lift the crowd in South London on Tuesday night as Palace struggled slightly to get to grips with the new philosophy after Vieira rang the changes. Kelly says that hard work is happening behind the scenes to ensure the team can make the necessary changes on pitch, and that fans are owed some entertaining football.
Martin Kelly said: “We are in the Premier League, it is the toughest league in the world, we know that,” Kelly said after the match. We’ve had a lot of change this summer so it’s about hard work off the pitch and behind closed doors that we’ve got to do. We have to be on board with each other and stick to the game-plan then hopefully we give the fans want they have been wanting at Selhurst for the past few years which is to be entertained because they deserve it. Marc seems a great lad on and off the pitch. He seems a nice guy who wants to learn and that is what we need at our club. Guys with talent but who are also willing to learn and take on board what the gaffer is saying. He seems a great lad and I am sure he will fit in well to the Palace way. It is exciting to get new players in. We’ve not managed to see Olise yet but his stats in the Championship were really good. We are looking forward to getting Eze back and the rest of the group back training so we have everyone fit and raring to go come the start of the season. Banksy and Jes have come in and done well pre-season. It is always a big step coming from Under-23 football into the first-team. To a degree we are short on numbers so it is a perfect opportunity for young lads at the minute. They have to understand it is a massive step in terms of application, attitude and talent and putting all that together then getting a game understanding that is good enough for first-team football. As long as they are willing to learn, they have the talent so I wish them the best of luck.”
