Palace chief explains what comes next for Cup winners as transfer impact clear
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish admits he felt nervous heading into the final few moments at Wembley, but his side held on for a famous win and their first ever trophy
Smiling from ear to ear standing outside the Wembley dressing rooms, chairman Steve Parish spoke of his pride and relief at Crystal Palace 's FA Cup triumph - and confessed his fear as a long-suffering Eagles fan.
And then the South Londoner, who helped save the club from extinction in 2010. explained how the first Austrian to win English football's most famous trophy had changed the mentality and history of his club and ended the era of 'glorious failures'.
Palace had played and lost two previous FA Cup finals to Manchester United. In 1990 when they twice led before losing a replay and in 2016 when Alan Pardew's goal celebration preceded an equaliser and an extra-time defeat.
This time Eberechi Eze scored a brilliant breakaway goal, Dean Henderson saved a penalty and Palace stayed alive during a long injury time. But old habits die hard.
'In that last ten minutes, I was thinking: 'Is this now going to be the injury-time killer, the one where we're even closer?'' Parish admitted. 'At the end, it was real pride, real relief. I could have cried. Brightie (1990 finalist Mark Bright) was crying next to me.
'It's just such a fantastic day for South London the fans, for everybody that's been on the journey in the club forever, but obviously the last 15 years.'
Parish led a consortium with three fellow supporters to save the Selhurst Park club from a second administration and liquidation. New US investors joined in 2015 and the club has enjoyed 12 consecutive seasons in the Premier League but had never won a trophy - or qualified for Europe - until now. And Oliver Glasner.
'It's always that glorious failure tag, and that's what Oliver's done,' said the co-owner. 'He's come in and just gone to another level. He said: 'Why glorious failure? Let's not do that, let's win something.
'For someone like Oliver, you have to remember, it doesn't happen by accident, he wants to win things, he wants to give people joy, and he's given me a lot of joy back in football. And he really helped me believe that we could do this.
'Sometimes maybe I've been part of that lack of belief, and of course you can see what he does to the fans. The fans are already incredible, but they believe the team are going to win. At the end I thanked him. He's a humble person. He said congratulations to me.'
The next challenges for Parish and Glasner are building a squad to play in Europe - and keep their England stars. Adam Wharton would strengthen any midfield while match winner Eberechi Eze has a £60m-plus buyout clause. 'He is one of the best players in the Premier League,' said Tyrick Mitchell. 'You can see that week in, week out.'
Captain Marc Guehi, who went off with concussion, has one year left on his deal. Will the FA Cup win encourage him to stay? 'I don't know, he's in hospital at the moment,' Parish deflected. 'He's thinking about his eye, at the moment.'
But playing in Europe - and winning in style - will help recruitment. 'It doesn't hurt, does it?' the Eagles chairman said. We had a player that was maybe not really that interested and they watched the semi-final and then the agent rang us and said he's quite interested in being part of it. And add on Europe and it's a big plus.
'It's going to be a real journey, fans going to far-flung places, Palace on tour, it's just the stuff of dreams.
'It's not massive money in the Europa League but it's decent money and it creates a bit of a gap. If we can keep doing the right things it gets rid of the very bad alternative (relegation).
"We are not going to lose our minds but we are going to take advantage of the situation and be positive and see what we can achieve. Hopefully it's not the only time we qualify.'
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