Son Ova Gunn

It wasn’t as disappointing as Fulham away…. Which just so happens to be our next game

The thing is, it’s not a sustainable model is it! Trying to compete at the bottom end of the Prem and top end of the Champs means we spend what little money we have plus a bit more and then fire sale our best talent to cover debts and are unable to push when really needed. It’s a model that either requires regular trips to the Premiership or rebuilding from league 1. We are some distance from the goal of a sustained period in the top flight. At this point I would rather we just actually lived within our means (as our board said we would) rather than this one foot in one foot out as I think it would effect some proper change.

The irony of the ‘reality’ based community trying to spin this approach as necessity and a way of ensuring club survival etc. At what point does running a club needing to make a 35+ million transfer profit per summer while receiving parachute payments become unsustainable? The financial reality is that we need Wagner to perform miracles this season to avoid the horrible vision of what a team with a L1/2 transfer budget would look like next season and after a great start he’s not really been backed from above… a situation that’s become all too familiar when the team just needs a CB or a holding mid etc.

I see your point.. but the word ‘much’ is open to quite a bit of interpretation. How long can a club avoid regression when they only spend 4.6% of the income generated on player sales with replacements? (The less than 5% figure comes from the quoted fees on pinkun transfer page and I don’t vouch for their complete accuracy).

A lack of ambition and poor judgement

This is the biggest surprise for me too.. with the 30-35 million generated in sales, plus wage savings, the pool of players to consider as a replacement should have been substantial. Why we had to leave it until Omo was sold is a mystery as an additional CB would have been a good idea anyway and how haven’t we identified a replacement that has resale value (as we are told this is a major criteria in our dealings due to our ‘model’) as well as experience and ability. At best Batth can only tick two of those boxes.

If you were the manager would you have picked Ono ahead of Gibson knowing he was going to be sold this summer and the defensive partnership would be broken up after 4 games?

Both the Russian and Qatar awards were seemingly influenced by bribes, from recollection it didn’t stop the country getting excited as the team progressed through the stages and can’t see it being any different this time around. No it shouldn’t have gone to a tiny country of less than 3m people who can’t hold it at the traditional time of the season but I don’t blame Qatar for that, that blame rests firmly on the shoulders of the bunch of snakes that was/is FIFA.

1. Net spend of £50m would easily suffice if no mistakes made which is clearly unrealistic but if targets had the main/sole priority of making the team PL ready rather than first consideration being will they sell on for profit then somewhere between £50-80m I would say would have been enough. Someone like Connor probably cost Palace very little. 2. A proper PL tier club owner could ensure this level of funds could be made available.

The term ‘failed’ doesn’t apply to many of these names, some were just wrong time like Korey Smith or Toffolo, Beckham wasn’t even a Norwich player and even Kane it could be argued got the development need at that stage of his career while we got a backup 3rd choice(?) striker. Failure to me is more like someone not doing the job they were brought in to do, someone like Julien Brellier who was going to fill a Gary Holt shaped hole in our midfield but was pants.. and he didn’t go on to better things no, I don’t think there are many that have.

Dion Dublin and Alice Parker

‘I just don’t think you could pull it off Scott, you would have to grow it out, dye it, The whole neat thing is probably best for you’

‘Hey Todd, you want to hit the bar after the game and I will buy you a drink’…

This is how I saw it as well, Cantwell is as flamboyant being fouled as he is on the ball but was able to link up play and recycle to ball well. Rachica on the other hand just looks like he isn’t on the same wavelength as any of his team. A nice tackle here and there and some surging runs just isn’t enough. Looked completely knackered after 75mins. Doesn’t make the starting 11 when everyone fit for me which is nowhere near the expectations I had for him.

Injured, has been for many months, so perfect for us really, expect Webber to be on the phone tomorrow 🙂