Julian Speroni gives first interview after becoming…

Julian Speroni gives first interview after becoming full-time coach at Crystal Palace

Julian Speroni has given his first interview since joining Crystal Palace's academy as a full-time coach.

The 43-year-old former goalkeeper spent 15 years with the Eagles between 2004 and 2019, making 405 appearances for the club and experiencing highs and lows, including relegation, administration and the club's promotion to the Premier League in 2012/13.

Speroni retired from football in 2019 and has since held various part-time roles at Palace, though he joined the coaching staff within the club's academy on a full-time basis in October.

“It’s been great so far, I’ve really enjoyed my time here. It’s a good group to work with and I’m really enjoying it," Speroni told PalaceTV this week.

“It’s great to work with Paddy [McCarthy] and Powelly [Darren Powell]. I know them as players, as they are former teammates of mine, and now as a coach it’s great to work with them and learn from them. They have a bit more experience than me in coaching, so it’s good to be next to them.

“It’s obviously different as a coach [compared to playing together on the pitch], you have more responsibility and it is a bit different, but the professionalism, how they take every session doesn’t change.”

Some of Palace's best young goalkeepers will benefit from Speroni's coaching and advice, including Under-21s shot-stopper Joe Whitworth and Under-18s keeper Owen Goodman. Defining his role, Speroni explained that he was not solely focused on the club's young goalkeepers however, with his duties expanding to work with other members of the squad as well.

“It’s mainly goalkeeping coaching, but it’s a combination of both," he added. “Nowadays you cannot isolate. I don’t think the goalkeeping coach role is like it used to be – you’re not a goalkeeping coach only, you’re a coach [primarily] and then you specialise in different areas of the game. The goalkeeper is a key part of the team and you have to work together with the other players as well.

“[The role of goalkeeping coach] has changed a bit. When I was a young lad, my first goalkeeping coach was when I was 15-16, before that I didn’t have a specialised goalkeeping coach. The game changed. Nowadays you wouldn’t think a team would only have coaches and not a goalkeeping coach, but as I said before – we’re coaches and we need to work together, there's no isolating anymore. It’s so important that we’re on the same page with whatever work that we do for the benefit of the team."

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