Crystal Palace have been criticised for their transfer policy by the authors of a report which shows the club have the largest squad in Europe’s top 31 divisions this season.
The Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory say Palace have 34 players on their books who have played in this or the previous two campaigns.
Following their promotion to the Premier League last May, Palace signed 16 players.
However, with Premier League teams only able to name 25-man squads it led to the embarrassment of two of Palace’s signings, Florian Marange (above) and Stephen Dobbie, being left off the official list. An angry Marange left the club in September while Dobbie spent the first half of the season on loan at Blackpool.
The study says of Palace’s strategy: “This reflects poor strategic planning as many established professionals do not even have the right to participate in league games. This may prove detrimental for team spirit over the long term.”
To avoid a repeat of the summer fiasco, Palace appointed Iain Moody as sporting director in November.
The study also showed that 60.4per cent of players in the Premier League are foreign, which is higher than in Spain, Germany, Italy and France.
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