Frank de Boer has taken over from Sam Allardyce intent on providing some longevity in the role and has already got the process of rejuvenation under way at a club who are entering their record fifth successive season in the top flight

Guardian writers’ predicted position 14th (NB: this is not necessarily Dominic Fifield’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position 14th

Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker) 750-1

Crystal Palace are in uncharted territory. A glance at the standings over the past few seasons suggests they are closer to feeling established in the top flight than ever, even if each of those mid-table finishes disguises an occasionally fraught campaign complete with prolonged flirtations with relegation.

Regardless, never before has this club enjoyed a fifth successive campaign among the elite. More to the point, in Frank de Boer they have appointed a manager of status charged with making them feel they truly belong.

There is risk involved in this team’s pursuit of progression. Alan Pardew had attempted to transform a side whose forte was counterattacking effervescence into a more possession-based team. Those intentions were well-meaning and born of long-term vision, that desire to evolve, but results suggested their implementation was far from smooth.

A miserable calendar year in 2016 had Palace turning to Sam Allardyce, a Red (and blue) Adair, in search of salvation. Survival was eventually achieved by heavy mid-season investment in the squad and a willingness to fall back upon more rugged qualities: tapping into the pace and skill of Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend on the flanks, the organisational inspiration of Mamadou Sakho at the back, the intelligent industry of Luka Milivojevic in central midfield, and Christian Benteke’s powerful presence up front.

Yet the startling results under Allardyce over the run-in – the improbable victories at Stamford Bridge and Anfield, and a thumping first home success over Arsenal in the league in 38 years – could not entirely erase the memory of what had been, until then, a miserable campaign.

It is hard to forget the chaotic losses to Swansea, home and away. Likewise those against Burnley, home and away, and the thrashing dished out by Sunderland, such a mess of a Premier League team, in early February as the atmosphere turned poisonous inside Selhurst Park.

Palace lost 21 of their 38 league games, with most of those defeats inflicted at home. Allardyce would have set about improving that record only for a traumatic year to catch up with him.

De Boer, appointed after an exhaustive recruitment process, is an exciting alternative; an intriguing addition to the Premier League but a man who will attempt to instigate improvement and transition in a new and brutal division.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wilfried Zaha strikes for Crystal Palace in a pre-season 1-1 draw with FC Metz. Photograph: Rex Shutterstock

Understandably there may be teething troubles ahead, but the Dutchman does appear galvanised by the challenge. “If Palace sign me they know they are going to see something different,” he said after his team’s participation in the Premier League trophy in Hong Kong. “They don’t want last season’s football. Again, great respect for Sam, I would have done the same. I have a lot of respect for Sam. He saved them. But we want something different. He was playing a system to survive. Now we have to be a solid club and take the next step. If we are complacent, we can’t do it.”

De Boer, who had steered Ajax to four successive domestic titles after a six-year drought, feels he is a better manager for the chastening experience at Internazionale, where a three-year contract was ripped up by the club’s Chinese owners after 85 days.

Certainly the 47-year-old is approaching the task ahead with a welcome degree of realism. He had previously acknowledged that striding into the training centre in Beckenham and merely imposing Ajax’s approach as the blueprint overnight would be footballing “suicide”.

Nor does he appear intent upon abandoning all semblance of defensive solidity in pursuit of a slicker, more lavish attacking style. The Premier League has a habit of exposing wide-eyed idealists, and solidity is required. “At Ajax, my team always conceded fewest goals,” he said. “I am good at [coaching] that, and hopefully we can see that at Crystal Palace. We do it all step by step. It starts there.”

It is hard to judge whether achieving the end game – which would surely be an upper-mid-table finish achieved with more of the ball – is realistic, and judgment should be reserved at the very least until the closure of the transfer window.

The games in Hong Kong, where Palace were outpassed by Liverpool but, in periods, looked threatening in victory over West Bromwich Albion, exposed a squad adjusting to new tactical demands. De Boer will know better now whether mainstays of the previous regimes – Damien Delaney, Scott Dann, Martin Kelly and Joel Ward – have it in them to adapt and thrive.

The fact the manager is intent upon adding new recruits across the backline would suggest rejuvenation is under way. That process began with the arrival of Jaïro Riedewald, a ball-playing defender from Ajax, and will be maintained in the pursuit of Bruno Martins Indi or Calum Chambers.

A hefty wage bill may need to be trimmed, too, to grant the recruitment department more leeway in the market, particularly after the vast expenditure of January. The last month of the window is likely to prove frantic, with incomings and outgoings: Palace have lost one goalkeeper in Steve Mandanda (who has returned to Marseille) and are seeking a replacement (Adrián at West Ham United is an option they may pursue), are short of back-up to Benteke, and will target another wide forward and a right wing-back who can operate in the manager’s favoured 3-4-3.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is an intriguing addition, though he must thrive as a loanee from Chelsea where Patrick Bamford and Loïc Rémy sank without trace. If the young midfielder proves he has the pedigree most believe he possesses, England senior recognition is not outlandish.

Yet, for all the hard work still to be undertaken, there is a mood of optimism around the set-up. De Boer and his coaching staff, Orlando Trustfull and Alessandro Schoenmaker, have made a favourable impression. Sammy Lee – whose contribution to the success eventually enjoyed under Allardyce should not be underestimated – adds some Premier League nous, while Ryland Morgans has also been retained on the staff. They provide continuity of sorts. Securing Zaha, an attacking player of such rare talent, to a new long-term deal even before the managerial appointment, can be considered a coup, and the hope is the coaching staff can eke consistency from a squad which has some pedigree, particularly in forward areas.

Achieve all that and De Boer – a manager chosen in the hope he might provide some longevity in the role – may actually succeed in providing what Palace require most of all from their most protracted stint in the top flight.

Retaining Premier League status has been the be-all and end-all over the past four years, an understandable objective given the vast amounts of income associated with life in the elite and the implications of slipping back from whence they came. But, at some stage, this club needs to start work on creating a legacy from this stint in the top division.

The redevelopment of Selhurst Park has stumbled on planning and political obstacles that Ron Noades would have considered infuriatingly familiar in the mid-1990s. Then there is the academy, the club’s pride and joy in financially tighter years, which remains housed in a Goals centre across the road from the training ground. De Boer, steeped in all things Ajax, arrived talking up the prospect of giving youth a chance, but achieving Category One status is a pipe dream while everything seems so temporary.

The chairman, Steve Parish, is acutely aware of the need to evolve off as well as on the pitch. The hope is that, under the new manager, both progressions can be undertaken in tandem. Those are ambitious plans. An interesting campaign awaits.