Palace takeover talk premature, says Parish
Steve Parish insists talk of a takeover at Crystal Palace is premature despite the club continuing to seek fresh investment.
Chairman Parish has made no secret of his desire to attract a cash injection in order to drive Palace to the next level in the Premier League.
But he maintains nothing has yet been finalised and that he - along with fellow owners Jeremy Hosking, Martin Long and Stephen Browett, who helped save the club in 2010 - are likely to remain involved should any deal be struck.
"The investment we need to move the club forward means we might need to bring people in," Parish told the club's official website.
"The papers love using words like 'takeover' and picking out certain individuals who might be involved, but they get snippets of information and build them up into facts that are nearly true but not really.
"I'll still be here and the other three guys would like to remain invested but we all recognise that a broader investor base would help us get to the next stage."
He added: "Nothing is done, we might do something, but if it's not right we won't do it."
Parish's decision to appoint Alan Pardew as manager in January certainly appears to have been the right one.
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The ex-Newcastle boss has steered his new side to the brink of top-flight survival and they currently sitting in 11th position, 11 points above the bottom three.
That means Palace are likely to extend their longest stay in the Premier League, and Parish feels such achievements are beginning to change the wider perception of the club.
"For the first time in a long time I feel like we're in a good place so let's hope we can cement our position in the league so we can start our planning earlier than we've ever been able to do it before," said Parish.
"I think we're in a different position than we have been before in terms of attracting players; I like to think that over the last two years we've made ourselves a different proposition in terms of how we're perceived.
"When we start next season the first priority will be getting to 40 points and staying in the league but I think we've got to start looking upwards and start feeling like that we're a good squad."
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