It hasn’t gone well when Birmingham City makes fun of a £12 million Crystal Palace player.
The Blues, who have a top-tier academy system, have in the past produced a number of gifted young players who made it into the first squad. They will be hoping that the current group of young players will do something exceptional. They were given a bit of a nasty surprise, though, when they travelled to the capital to play the Eagles and faced Romain Esse, an eight-figure Palace signing.
Esse paid £12 million to join Palace from Millwall, his south London rivals, during the January transfer window earlier this year, but he hasn’t had the best start at Selhurst Park. Esse was dropped into Darren Powell’s underage squad two weeks ago after playing against Leeds United and Manchester United. He lined up against Birmingham on Monday after being criticised by Oliver Glasner last season after being substituted onto the field and off within a 20-minute timeframe during a match against Liverpool, and again last month after playing against his old club Millwall in the EFL Cup.
Esse’s selection for Palace’s under-21 team is obviously perfectly acceptable given that he is 20 years old, but it is evident that the media department did not find it amusing that such a costly player would be dropped into the development squad setup in order to gain playing time after the left-footed attacker came up outside the box on 18 minutes to curl home a stunning goal past keeper William O’Sullivan.
Given that they spent almost £15 million on Fulham forward Jay Stansfield when they were a League One team and used him against teams with far worse financial standing, many have viewed the Birmingham media team’s apparent jab at Palace for using Esse in such a match as bitter irony. When a lot of money was spent to lure Stansfield to St. Andrew’s, one rival Aston Villa supporter said it was inappropriate to say such a thing.
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