What chance do the rest of us have?

With the story of Arsenal luring teen prodigy Jon Toral away from Barcelona for a fee of only £300,000 breaking in this morning’s papers, you have to question where it leaves a multitude of other clubs who have talented youngsters on their books.

If what is arguably the greatest club side in memory, with a rich history and a 98,000 seater stadium which is regularly packed to the rafters cannot convince a 16-year-old that they are the best place for him to learn his trade then the rest of us may as well pack up and go home.

The Arsenal perspective will play on the fact that his mother hails from England and that they represent a better place for him to progress, but it all just seems a little bit uncomfortable to me.

I do have very raw feelings about this type of story due to the departure of a certain John Bostock from my own club for the bright lights of Spurs almost three years ago now.

Mr Bostock was always known as a temperamental little chap, declaring after failing to impress in an FA Cup game away at Watford that he needed to play at a higher standard for his "true potential" to be realised. After only making five appearances for the Palace first team he was gone, and a long and drawn out tribunal case between the two clubs resulted in Simon Jordan's first apparent feelings of disenchantment with the world of football.

I had various reactions from fellow football fans aimed at me when I asked them for their take, some sympathised by agreeing that he should have stayed with us for a little while longer to help his progress, whilst others told me to accept that, although it was hard to take, it was the reality of modern football.

Nearly three years on, and he has found himself sitting on Hull City's bench for much of the current campaign, struggling for regular appearances and probably wishing he was somewhere that was at least offering him consistent first team football, something we would definitely have given him. Thus allowing him to move on when he was genuinely ready and allowing him a realistic chance of harnessing all that "true potential" he appeared so worried about back in 2008.

When you put this into the Arsenal v Barcelona context you realise that modern football has taken another set of giant strides towards the erosion of club loyalty and youth policy in the last year or so. The lack of restrictions on young players movements meaning that big clubs are given a free reign over who they want to pick up for miniscule compensation sums from clubs whose financial standing is the only yard stick as to whether they are deemed acceptable to the teenager (and inevitably agent) who have £ signs spinning around their heads.

Thankfully, the Bostock incident appears to have had a positive impact on our youth policy and players, for the time being at least. With his example having fallen so flat it gives the coaches and representatives of Crystal Palace a way of demonstrating how not to do it.

Other clubs may not be so lucky, and today's news only hammers another nail into the coffin of hope for clubs such as ours, there is no doubt in my mind that something must be done to redress the balance.

Having seen us go down 1 - 0 to Pompey on Tuesday we welcome Reading to Selhurst Park on Saturday in the hope that we can grind out another vital win and keep up fantastic home clean sheet record in the process.

We are now 61 minutes away from reaching a club record for the longest period at home without conceding, something which, if you had mentioned it six months ago I would have laughed off without a moment’s thought, but there you go, football is a strange animal and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that it is kind to us again this weekend.

Our away form is a massive concern, but for the time being I am putting it to the back of my mind and focusing solely on Reading getting a 3 - 0 pasting from us, preferably with goals from Sean Scannell, Wilfried Zaha and Nathaniel Clyne, just so that we can take extra comfort in knowing that our youth academy is alive and kicking when so many others are struggling to remain successful.

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Plymouth Argyle, the slow and painful death of football in the lower tiers and Darren Ambrose's wonder strike...

The news this afternoon that Plymouth Argyle have been deducted 10 points due to their inability to pay a tax bill of around £300,000 brought back the feelings of sadness and anger that I experienced upon hearing last January, that Crystal Palace had been dealt a similar blow.

The penalty leaves the club bottom of the League 1 table and, having just sold Bradley Wright Phillips to Charlton it appears that there is very little hope of them being able to preserve their status as a third tier side beyond the end of this season.

Point deductions are horrible things, they in no way benefit the club they have been given to and, if anything, only serve to further endanger their chances of recovering into any resemblance of a sustainable team in the future.

My belief is that, contrary to what Mr "Look at Me!" Barry Hearn thinks, the answer is not to relegate any team who lose control of their finances in the lower tiers but instead, to police the system from the top down by ensuring that the big clubs are held to account for their gross overspending and lavish wage offers to the "elite" players in the game.

When you consider that Plymouth have been deducted nearly a third of their points for an amount the equivalent of Yaya Toure's wages for a mere 11 days, you surely have to admit that there is something deeply wrong at the core of the game.

If the bigger clubs were regulated in a stricter way rather than being allowed to spend these vast sums on transfers, wages and so on you may well find that the smaller clubs demonstrate a far calmer, more measured approach to running their own finances, but with everyone looking towards the Premeir League as the example to follow, the common view amongst fans and owners is that they must spend themselves into oblivion for the fear of being left behind.

I feel deeply sorry for Plymouth Argyle, the fans, players and owners alike, and only hope that they find the sort of investment that we at Crystal Palace are now so lucky to have. We now know that the long term future of the football club we adore is in four very safe pairs of hands, who, having seen what can happen when things get out of control, are determined to run the club in a way that will not endanger it for the generations to come. 

It may not mean that we are fighting for a Champions League place in 7 years, or the latest superstar is linked with us every summer, but it does mean that it will be there for us until the day we die, and as far as I can tell, that is all any real football fan wants from their club when all is said and done.

Anyway, back to matters on the pitch and an absolutely massive three points for us against Sheffield United on Saturday.

The game itself wasn't the best, lots of blood and guts without much in the way of flair, until out of nothing came one of the most sublime strikes I have ever seen hit the back of the net at the Holmesdale Road end.

After a looping header from Sean Scannell, James Vaughan neatly flicked the ball towards Darren Ambrose who proceeded to lift his first touch to around shoulder height before tilting his body to the left and hammering a volley past the despairing hands of the Sheffield United keeper and into the very top left hand corner of the net.

As soon as the ball went in, Darren sprinted towards Block B of the Holmesdale Road end with a look of what can only described as sheer elation on his face, only to be mobbed by the rest of the team whilst us fans jumped around like children.

It was clearly a massive weight off his mind and his celebration demonstrated just how desperate he was to get the goal, not only for himself but for the fans as well. 

We managed to hold on to the lead, and in the process made it eight consecutive home clean sheets in a row, taking us five points clear of the bottom three. We now face a trip to Fratton Park tonight, hoping that we can improve on our dismal away record and get a win that would give us some serious breathing room from the relegation zone.

My thoughts this evening are with Plymouth Argyle and their supporters, keep the faith, we did and look at us now...

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