105: Julian Speroni, Crystal Palace, Merlin’s Premier League 2015 Sticker Collection

Shortly before his retirement from professional football in 2019 Julian Speroni gave one last interview to the Crystal Palace matchday programme staff where he chronicled his fifteen-year stay at Selhurst Park. During that time there is no dispute that the Argentine shot-stopper had made himself a club legend through a combination of exceptional saves, engagement with the fans and local community and fierce loyalty throughout arguably the club’s most turbulent period in their recent history. But more on that later, because in this interview the great man went all the way back to his arrival in the UK in 2001 and this provided too great an opportunity for an article littered with questionable references to ‘I’m Alan Partridge’. Lovely stuff.

Speroni had played just two games for Club Atletico Platense when he “found himself in Dundee having sent off a homemade VHS of his finest saves to the Scottish club’s manager, Ivano Bonetti.” Nothing was said about the quantity of Toblerone consumed during his transatlantic flight but clearly enough of the footage from ‘Crash! Bang! Wallop! What a save!’ had impressed the Italian boss and over the next three seasons Speroni made 113 appearances for the Dark Blues helping them to two solid mid-table finishes and one foray into Europe via the UEFA Cup in the 2003/04 campaign. Moreover, his performances attracted the attention of newly promoted Crystal Palace’s manager, and fan of bouncing back, Iain Dowie who paid £750,000 to bring Speroni to South London.

A man ahead of his time, Julian Speroni introduced the Selhurst faithful to the concept of playing out from the back on his home debut against Everton. Unfortunately this culminated in Jules being robbed of the ball by an ageing Kevin Campbell, future Galactico Thomas Gravesen scoring the resulting penalty and Palace going down to a 3-1 home defeat. Defeats in the Eagles’ subsequent five league fixtures saw Dowie bring in Hungarian tracksuit aficionado Gabor Kiraly and Speroni was limited to two League Cup appearances in the rest of the 2004/05 campaign as a late Jonathan Fortune equaliser for Charlton Athletic gave Palace as much hope of a second season in the top flight as a lunch at the BBC with Tony Hayers. 

Despite being mostly limited to the midweek League Cup graveyard shifts in the next two seasons Speroni stuck it out at Selhurst Park without resorting to drawing chalk diagrams of gentlemen’s parts on Kiraly trackies and reclaimed his first team place when the Hungarian departed at the end of the 2006/07 season. He well and truly bounced back as his calming presence in the Palace goal helped the Eagles into the play-offs and, although Ben Watson’s missed penalty denied them the chance of Wembley glory, Speroni was deservedly named as the club’s player of the season. Whilst Palace failed to produce the same form in the 2008/09 campaign the same could not be said for Speroni who missed only one league game and was once again singled out as the Eagles’ player of the year. Jurassic Park!

Having won back his place in the Palace goal Speroni further endeared himself to the Selhurst faithful when the club was plunged into administration during the 2009/10 season. As manager Neil Warnock buggered off to Queen’s Park Rangers and prized asset Victor Moses was sold to Wigan Athletic Speroni not only pledged his allegiance to the Eagles but also informed the money men to write off his outstanding wages for the remainder of the campaign. This selflessness and his consistently excellent performances unsurprisingly saw him awarded a third consecutive club player of the season prize as Palace secured their Championship survival on the last day of the season with a 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.

Fast forward two seasons and Speroni’s heroics alongside the goals of Glenn Murray and the emergence of Wilf Zaha helped Palace return to the Premier League promised land. As Kevin Phillips smashed homed his extra-time penalty at Wembley the Argentine keeper collapsed to his knees in joyful prayer as the crowd descended into celebrations befitting a loud rendition of the Black Beauty theme. Despite ‘Ollie’s decision to sign every mediocre winger in existence Palace achieved a first when they survived a season in the Premier League and, fittingly, Speroni was crowned as the club’s player of the season for a fourth time. 

After a near ever-present campaign in 2014/15 Speroni found his opportunities at Selhurst Park increasingly limited as successive Palace managers relied on the likes of Alex McCarthy, Mark Bosnich impersonator Wayne Hennessey and, arguably Jules’ rightful successor, Vicente Guaita. When he eventually hung up his gloves in 2019 he had made 405 appearances in all competitions for the Eagles and had been a cornerstone in establishing them in English football’s top flight. Having settled with his family in nearby Purley Speroni looks likely to stay involved with Palace in one way or another and, despite the ups and downs, it’s fair to say he had the last laugh.