da 888： Club legends – almost every side has one.
da blaze casino： Southampton have Matt Le Tissier.
Newcastle have Alan Shearer.
In Crystal Palace’s case, Andy Johnson is perhaps one of the Eagles’ club legends, but how did he end up in SE25?
Well, in what was somewhat of a story for the shadows having been part of an exchange which saw Clinton Morrison join Birmingham, the Midlands-based club allowed Johnson to join Crystal Palace for just £750k in 2002.
The striker – signed by Trevor Francis – was a diminutive figure, and one who was perhaps the least flashy of a footballer you will ever see.
Johnson took the No.8 shirt at Selhurst Park, and went on to rack up a scoring rate so brilliant that it’s hard not to consider him one of the greatest players ever to wear red and blue.
The man who was capped eight times by England scored 75 goals in 149 appearances for the Eagles, which is marginally better than a goal every two games – a quite absurd scoring rate.
In today’s money – calculated using the Bank of England’s inflation calculator – Johnson’s £750k fee would look more like £1,229,283.56, which makes him a true bargain in every sense of the word.
Of course, Premier League TV money and other factors may influence that inflation rate from a footballing sense, although there is very little than can influence the fact that Johnson was phenomenal for Palace.
The 39-year-old won the club’s Player of the Year award on two occasions – firstly in 2003/04 and again in 2004/05 – while he was also named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year amongst the likes of Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard having netted 21 Premier League goals in the 2004/05 season.
From non-League to the Premier League: Where did these top-flight stars begin their careers?
He truly was an excellent goalscorer and is currently an ambassador at Crystal Palace, where he will forever be welcomed with open arms.
In other news, Crystal Palace’s season would look vastly different had Freedman not done one thing in the summer…