During the 1997–98 English football season, Crystal Palace competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Experienced Italian midfielder

Attilio Lombardo Attilio Lombardo (; born 6 January 1966) is an Italian retired football player turned manager; he is currently the assistant manager for the Italy national team. Throughout his career he was usually deployed as a wide midfielder, or as an of ...

was one of the most famous names to wear a Palace shirt when he arrived at

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst in the London Borough of Croydon which is the home ground of Premier League side Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted international footba ...

early in the season, and his influential form looked to have secured Palace's top flight status as they stood 10th as late as November. Within the first 14 games of the season, they were enjoying reasonable mid-table form, losing and winning five each and drawing four games; all of their wins at the time were away from home. Their 1–0 win at

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

cumulated their good form though and from then on, they would struggle. Lombardo's fellow countryman Michele Padovano was also signed, but proved to be a complete flop, as did

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forward

Tomas Brolin Per Tomas Brolin (born 29 November 1969) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward or as a midfielder. At club level, he had a successful period with A.C. Parma during the early 1990s, winning the 1992 Coppa Italia, th ...

, and Palace were soon deep in relegation trouble. With a takeover by

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

tycoon Mark Goldberg on the horizon,

Steve Coppell Stephen James Coppell (born 9 July 1955) is an English professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a highly regarded right winger known for his speed and work rate. He won domestic honours with Manchester United and rep ...

relinquished his managerial duties to become Director of Football. Lombardo and Brolin became joint player-managers on a short-term contract, but were unable to stave off relegation, which was confirmed on 27 April after a 3–0 defeat to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and they were soon on their way out of the club and Ray Lewington was appointed for the final three league games of the season. It was a season to forget for the club which saw them win just two home league games all season and it took them a staggering eight months to record their first home league win: against Derby County in April. When the Goldberg takeover was completed, Terry Venables returned to the manager's seat after an eventful 18 years away, with the new chairman boasting that Palace would be a European force by 2003.

Kit

Palace retained the previous season's home kit, manufactured by German company

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

and sponsored by

TDK is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity". "TDK" is an initialism of the original Ja ...

Final league table

;Results summary ;Results by round

Results

''Crystal Palace's score comes first''

Legend

FA Premier League

FA Cup

League Cup

First-team squad

:''Squad at end of season''

Left club during season

Reserve squad

Transfers

In

Out

:Transfers in: £14,100,000 :Transfers out: £7,075,000 :Total spending: £7,025,000

Statistics

Appearances and goals

, - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Goalkeepers , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Defenders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Midfielders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Forwards , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Players transferred out during the season

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1997-98 Crystal Palace F.C. season Crystal Palace F.C. seasons Crystal Palace