Roy Hodgson loves Jairo Riedewald. That's not a sentence we ever thought we'd be saying but after pretty much being forced into playing the young Dutchman against Burnley, the Crystal Palace boss was pleased with what he saw.

Injuries to Yohan Cabaye, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jason Puncheon meant Roy had to go with the 21-year-old Jairo alongside Luka Milivojevic. And it was a gamble that paid off as the young Dutchman was superb despite not having played much at all since arriving in the summer

In fact it was just his third league start for Palace since arriving from Ajax for £7m in the summer; a player Frank de Boer pleased with the Eagles hierarchy to sign.

And now it seems, the club is starting to reap the rrewards of probably the only thing Frank got right during his short stint at Selhurst. After an imperious display in the middle of the park Hodgson sang Riedewald's praises. "He's a quality player there's no doubt about that," he said.

"We had not been 100% convinced because we have not seen that much of him really. Can he handle matches like this, can he handle the cut and thrust, can he handle the somewhat uglier side of the game where you've got to win tackles, run around a lot, chase people and get a foot in and sometimes get to the ball first and clear it.

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"Compared to an Ajax game where you're totally dominating 90% of possession you're never in that position. All you're doing is picking your passes. I thought he got that absolutely right today, he and Luka were very very important duo in that centre of the midfield and they were well supported by McArthur who once again had an exception game.

"So I'm very pleased for Jairo, we've never doubted him in terms of his paying ability, the only question mark we had was can you deal with the Burnleys of the world? Can you deal with it when the ball going over your head and you've got to spin round and win a knock-down, can you make the right decision and not put them on the attack because you've tried to pass your way out of trouble and I think he comes out of that today

"If I say to him on Monday 'right how do you think you did?' I'd be very surprised if he didn't say to me 'I did what you asked, I did exactly that.'"

Five Year Plan has been a thing since 2003 so there was only one man we wanted to interview in our 50th issue as we look back over 14 years of FYP; Julian Maria Speroni. And we were in luck as the man himself kindly agreed to sit down with us to look back over his own 13 years at Selhurst Park.

The Eagles cult hero talked to FYP about all sorts of things regarding his time in South London as well as his hopes for the future. Having just got back into the team after waiting 18 months for a Premier League appearance, Speroni was keen to keep going and doesn't see any end in sight yet.

He said: “I don't think I'm going to lose my fitness too much, but there's going to be a time where you can't really recover from game to game and that's when goalkeepers notice they are getting older. There's going to be a point where I won't be able to play three games a week and as a No.1 you need that consistency, you need to be playing regularly.

"With the craziness of the Premier League it doesn't allow that sometimes. Not just us but other clubs are going through exactly the same thing that we went through before, with managerial changes and you don't know what's coming, you don't know if he's going to like you or not. As a professional, what can you do? When that time comes if I had to take another role within the squad then I'll be happy to, but I don't think the time is now.”

On waiting for a chance to prove himself in the first team-team he added: “It's tough, really tough, when you’re not playing.But I've seen so many players complain and complain that they are not playing and get upset, but then when they have the chance they can't take it because they are not ready for it.

The full interview is available to read only in issue 50 of FYP which you can buy here.

 

Nicest. Man. In. Football. Full interview with Jules in issue 50 of FYP out December 9th. #cpfc

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"Because they haven't trained properly, they haven't done the right things, they're always in a mood. So when I have been not playing I’ve thought ‘OK, football changes and the chance eventually will come for one reason or another and, when it does, I need to make sure that I will be able to take that chance’.

“If you have a problem with it you go and talk to the manager and then try to work things out, but once you step on that pitch training you leave all that aside and need to make sure that you do all you can; on the pitch, in the gym, all the recovery stuff, everything. Because you never know. You may have the opportunity this coming weekend and if you're not ready you're going to waste it. And all your complaining and all your moaning about it is going to go through the window because you just had the opportunity and you didn't take it.”

He also goes on to talk about his favourite Palace memories, his thoughts on the current campaign and working under Roy Hodgson and his hopes for the future when he does hang up his gloves.

Watch a teaser of the interview on FYP TV below...

The full interview is available to read only in issue 50 of FYP which you can buy here.