Crystal Palace: Parish has 'spent big money' behind-the-scenes at Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace have ‘spent a lot of money’ improving their academy facilities and chairman Steve Parish has been ‘central’ to it, according to The Sun journalist Tom Barclay.

The Eagles have enjoyed on-pitch success in recent years, maintaining their Premier League status with ease and have now made steps towards building a prosperous future.

Last October, England manager and former Palace academy graduate Gareth Southgate opened Palace’s new £20 million academy redevelopment, marking a new chapter in the club’s history.

The new-look youth facilities contain six full-size pitches, including an outdoor 3G pitch with floodlighting, a show pitch that will have a 500-seater stand, and a full-size covered indoor 3G training pitch.

A state-of-the-art medical rehab and extended gym therapy area are planned and will form the final phase of the project, alongside the completion of the show pitch stand, replacing portacabins with state-of-the-art facilities in an elite Category 1 Academy.

Parish has claimed the development will have a ‘transformative effect on the future’ of Palace’s fortunes while also benefitting the local community greatly.

Barclay told GiveMeSport that although manager Patrick Vieira has the ‘final say’ on decisions such as signing players, Parish is also working hard behind the scenes.

He said: “Whilst Vieira will have the final say on all these things, and he definitely played an absolute key part, for example, in convincing someone like (Conor) Gallagher to come on loan last year, I know he was crucial to that, Steve Parish is obviously playing a huge role behind it.

“And it’s not just the first-team in the way it’s going, they also take a lot of credit for the way they’re developing the academy.

“They’ve