“Yes, of course,” admits Speroni. “Anything can happen. You have different options, sometimes you have to move on. Obviously it will be hard for me not to see the Palace badge on my chest because it has been such a long time. This club is my house, the club is my family. I feel like I am a Palace fan. But as a professional you have to be able to move on – and be allowed to move on.
“Nothing has been offered yet,” he adds, with specific reference to a new contract (he is already well into his tenth season – what is normally regarded as testimonial territory). “They say they want me to stay, but I don’t know. Different chairmen manage the club in different ways, different directors. If they want you to stay they have to offer you a contract, a contract that you deserve. At the moment, this is probably going to be my last season for the club and I want to enjoy it as much as I can because I am having a great time.
“If I had to leave then I found Palace in the Premier league and I want to leave them in the Premier League,” he adds. “That is my target.
“Four times they have been in the Premier League and they have been relegated straightaway. If we can stay in the Premier League this season then that would be fantastic – it would be a mark in the history of the club.”
No one who saw Speroni’s uncertain displays early in his Palace career could have predicted that he would become a permanent fixture at the club, with a restaurant named in his honour. It seems cruel to have to make mention of this while sitting in such convivial surroundings, a little awkward too. There is a gentle admonishment.
“People always remember the mistake, that is common – it is easier to remember that than the great saves,” he says.
The Mistake in question occurred during a game against Everton when Speroni, on only his second appearance for Palace, attempted to dribble past Kevin Campbell. He was duly dispossessed and then brought the striker down, at the expense of a penalty which saw Thomas Gravesen equalise for the visitors on their way to a 3-1 win. Typically, Speroni has learned to treat the incident as a positive. “The fact everyone remembers that one that I made ten years ago means I have not done too badly, and you learn from your mistakes, of course,” he says. “I am still not sure it was a penalty. I have not looked at it again – you cannot look back. You learn from it and move on. Ten years on I know it was not that bad, I have seen a lot worse.”