Best view of Croydon may be had from the rear view mirror.
Best thing to come out of Croydon is the A23 which takes you to Brighton.
I will concede in its favour that it does have trams, but Brighton have the Volks Railway which has far more history.
There's not much to see there after the locals burned most of it down a few years ago.
Like the football ground, most of it is a tottering pile of barely standing timbers with distraught people wailing, crying and asking what they've done to deserve this.
The only thing Croydon had going for it was a brilliant little independent music shop just off the main parade of shops, sadly closed down before the vinyl revival could make it popular again. Otherwise, I reckon Croydon itself is a bit generic and the places of any interest are just outside such as South Norwood (country park), Shirley (windmill), Crystal Palace (park and sports centre), Forest Hill (Horniman Museum).
In all honesty, you'd be better off exploring Dulwich and Greenwich.