Pardew factor massive for Townsend at Palace
After two seasons that haven’t exactly gone to plan for Andros Townsend, the England winger is determined to make the most of his opportunity at Crystal Palace.
Townsend fell out of favour at Tottenham in 2015, before sealing a January switch to Newcastle, where his form was good under Rafa Benitez but still the Toon suffered relegation to the Championship.
Eagles boss Alan Pardew took a punt on the England winger this summer; convinced Townsend has all the ingredients to be a star for Palace in this season’s Premier League.
Pardew was a huge contributing factor in the England man’s switch to South London, with Townsend having been impressed by the form and progression of fellow wingers Wilfried Zaha and Jason Puncheon.
And now the former Tottenham man is desperate to repay Pardew and fire Palace to new heights.
“Like everyone else, I’m very excited,” he said. “I can’t wait to get going now. Pre-season was good and we got some good workouts against some good opposition and I think that everyone now is focused on Saturday.
(Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
“I’ve played football for 11 or 12 clubs now but this is the first time I’ve done pre-season away from Spurs.
“It was a new experience and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I just can’t wait to play a competitive game for Palace in front of my new fans.
“It was an extremely hard decision to leave Newcastle; but I just decided that I needed to be playing Premier League football.
“Alan Pardew was a big factor. If you look at Zaha, he came back from Man United maybe slightly low on confidence but you can see how well Wilfried was playing last season and Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon too.
“He’s got the best out of the wingers at this club so hopefully he can do the same with me.
“It’s difficult to move around a lot. When I first signed for Newcastle, I didn’t see myself leaving within four or five months, but it’s one of those things. Now I’m back in London, I’m back home and hopefully now I can put my roots down and stay here for four or five years or even longer.”
