Timothy Fosu-Mensah has admitted he had to adapt to life at Crystal Palace having spent time with Manchester United. The Netherlands defender spent a season on loan during the 2017/18 season, having spoken to Frank de Boer that pre-season and the potential to play the regular football that was alluding him at Old Trafford. De Boer soon left having failed to win any of his opening seven matches and was replaced by Roy Hodgson, who is back at the club in 2023 after leaving in 2021 after four years in charge at Selhurst Park. Featuring 21 times in the league that season, Fosu-Mensah enjoyed his time with the Eagles but did admit he had to get used to losing after winning most matches as a United player.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah said: “I joined Palace on loan when Frank de Boer took over as manager at the start of that season. He called me and he made it clear that he wanted me which is what I needed to hear as I knew that I had to go and play regularly in the Premier League. Unfortunately, Frank left the club after four league games. We did not win any of our first seven games in the Premier League which made the season ahead very tough. This was also a learning curve for me as I had arrived from United where we won most of our games. However, Roy Hodgson came in as manager after four games and I went on to have a good season. The fans at Crystal Palace are fantastic and always create a wonderful atmosphere at Selhurst Park. Roy Hodgson is a big-name manager in England as he has managed the English national team and I learned a lot from him and his assistant Ray Lewington. The club itself is a brilliant club and I really appreciate what the club did for me as that was the season that I broke into the full Netherlands team and became an international player.”
Fosu-Mensah is currently at German club Bayer Leverkusen, having left United two seasons ago and made more appearances for Palace in the league than he did United, 21 to 16.
