There is always an added frisson of excitement when the champions are in town but for Nathaniel Clyne the arrival of Liverpool at Selhurst Park today may feel slightly surreal. He was the epitome of all that Jürgen Klopp demands of his players and yet the club sealed the title without once being able to call upon the full back.
Injuries, combined with the emergence of Trent Alexander-Arnold, had begun to curtail Clyne’s involvement at Liverpool and then in July last year, in a friendly against Borussia Dortmund, he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament. He was released 11 months later. In a relatively unusual move, Clyne trained at Palace over the summer as a free agent with the club who had launched the 29-year-old Londoner’s
