Palace fan

Hope you guys revel in your club working its way to the top and earning titles. Nothing like home grown success after all.

True enough in a way but there is something freaky about Freedman's hit rate and decision making which is close enough to 100% if you ignore low-level opportunistic buys such as Plange for U21 duties and on the off chance - only real fails being Nathan Ferguson who we bought injured and stayed injured for 4 years and Sorloth who I think we can now put down to managerial error. Franca too an unknown as yet I suppose. The current level of success is freaky as each season there are around 5/6 must haves from the Champo. Some fail, some disappoint and some are good value. It's a minority that become great value star buys. Just off the top of my head: Buendia, Lewis-Potter, Benrahma. All good players of course but for various reasons have never really done it and certainly haven't made the star buy category. Not expecting this level of success to continue. There have been plenty of near misses with players who have been on the verge of signing but chosen elsewhere (Adam Armstrong, Flynn Downes etc) that have been way below this level.

Nah Much of the point with Wharton is that a huge percentage of his passes are one touch and go forwards into attacking areas and he finds people 90% of the time. The speed and awareness of his passes make him simply different class. I'll grant you he makes it look simple and plenty of PL clubs passed on him for different reasons (pace, physique etc). Southgate made an interesting point about him that he had really impressed the England squad and they began moving into areas to collect his passes - that's exactly what happened at Palace too with Eze and Olise responding to him and getting into great areas as they knew Wharton would find them. A good 40% of all those goals we scored at the end of last season came from him creating something. He's said himself that as a former 10 he really enjoys putting people away as he knows how hard it is to make opportunities up top. Still early days and things could go wrong if his next move is the wrong one but confident that he'll end up at one of those truly elite CL clubs if he maintains this level - not talking about the PL 6 here.

Rubbish tonight for sure. But zero football for months - even failed to displace Clyne towards the end of the season when he came back and just got a run in midfield. He is class and can play at this level but foolish to take him with no football in his legs. A Southgate stupidity.

For sale

Sadly not for sale

Will confess to having underrated him - does look the real deal. That's my sop to the stray Newcastle fans on here. Now for the antagonistic bit I see the Milner comparison but he had limited time as a forward really and was always the nice guy. Ronaldo - tad ambitious. How about Zaha? As universally loathed by other clubs as loved by his own club - very much amused by the comment somewhere above that bemoans the lack of penalties won in his stats. Top quality? 100% committed to the cause no matter what. I'll happily grant you Gordon has a higher ceiling than Zaha ever achieved given he got a transfer to the right club at the right time and may consequently develop in other ways but while fans of other clubs would like him to be the most fouled player in PL history doubt he'll get that accolade!! Complete and utter tosspot (on the pitch) unless he's your tosspot.

We can agree on that. This looks 99% like Chalobah moving on and he's in the pure profit category and young enough to command close to a premium fee. Guessing somewhere abroad. In effect a 20-25 mill profit with squad undiluted. Pity as that is one club (hesitate to use word team) that no one wants to have funds and avoid sanctions.

35 million for a 28 year old centre back on huge wages??? Centre backs can go for big sums but rarely if ever at that age bracket and with such limited pedigree at the top. Closest equivalent I can see is Zouma who was younger and gad more pedigree. Man U couldn't give Maguire away remember.

Perhaps. Not sure that Tosin will go for a huge profit. He'll be going there on top 6 wages and only a few clubs can afford those and he's not top 6 quality except as a squad filler in all likelihood. Working on the basis that no football player takes a salary cut it's a limited market if you discount Saudi Suspect his future is being cycled through the never ending loan system

They also have a reported policy of no signing over 25 Personally think you're better off without and focussing on upside players. I get the concept of raising the floor of your squad but even with a free I'd be looking for more potentially and this looks short-sighted. Just two years down the line and you'll be looking at his wages and wondering why one of your top earners is a fringe defender and one you can't shift as no one else will want a 29 year old on top whack - unless Everton and West Ham are still round of course. Players who come on frees are not exactly free - wages add up. A consistent Dougie target fwiw has been Ronnie Edwards and it's still possible he's on the Palace list - think there is an upside there and if the worst comes to the worst a player you can comfortably move on on pedigree alone. Grow him for a year or two and you might have an England level CB as that is what his record still suggests he can be whereas with Tosin you'd be getting someone who has topped out and been shown to be middling at the top level. Pay him a standard salary and give him a 3 year contract sure. But that's not why he chose to become a free agent.. .

Seems unlikely agreed - there'd be lots of football to go around but sharing right wing is not where he wants to be at surely. But for every report that says he wants to join Man U as he supports them, there is another that says he's after CL football. Has the makings of a silly season special. Fascinated to see how it pans out. He could end up at any one of the top 10 last season barring WH. City are losing Silva in all likelihood and never replaced Mahrez but they don't appear interested as yet. Salah has one season at most left but guessing Slot will go continental if at all. Man U is career suicide. Chelsea he's turned down once already and are a complete mess. Villa are short of budget likely and bought there last season. You do have a vacancy but are still a project club. He's loved life under Glasner who has already developed his game but come on this is just Palace, can he wait another year?

Think you'll find that he'll be turning out for Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal next season - at least that's the only way to make sense of the reports - so you lot should get your skates on. Could work I suppose if scheduling is kind - though might not be great for his dodgy hamstrings. (The curiosity is of course he turned down Chelsea last year when there was no apparent reason to and there is still his "complex" release clause. That could mean just about anything but probably fair to say it works in his favour as he was very much in box seat when it was negotiated. Only specified clubs?)

https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/aston-villa-chelsea-may-face-uefa-ban-due-to-ffp-issues/ I may marginally raise your prospects for Conference football in 2025/6. Top 9 might be doable - unless you suffer the world's most unprecedented injury crisis again

Fair amount depends on Olise and Eze and where they are likely - though of course if they do go there will be (for us) unheard amounts of money to spend on replacements. 10-14 is generally never far off of course but Glasner didn't come for that and has been to Europe wherever he's been and it's easy to see why now. A De Zerbi Brighton season not impossible by any means if we have reasonable injury luck. I'm guessing that no squad in the league has a sharper drop off from first team to rest. Impressive that Mitchell is possibly our weak link as he's very handy - less impressive that Joel Ward is an injury away from playing. But been around long enough to look forward to next season in the knowledge that we'll be playing watchable football and be most likely be a feel-good club that is fun to support. It's not always like that after all.

Personally I'd take a trophy any day of the week - helps that they come with rewards in Europa Could be of course you consolidate the squad sufficiently in this window to make a serious run at CL possible too. Villa did after all but they were blindingly good up to the new year - just a couple of points off top. Feels like a scenario you hope for rather than expect.

Service is definitely a factor here. Olise and Eze play as 10s with him as the point of the triangle. It was frankly miraculous to watch how co-ordinated the attacking patterns were - generally set in motion by One-touch Wharton. Quality of players helps of course but mostly elite management in my book. Would have thought that a similar system would work for you and that the missing piece of the jigsaw might not be a wide player right but someone to play narrower - feel sure that Gordon has that within his game on the other side. Need overlapping wingbacks to really make it pay but Livramento and Hall should have that within their toolset after all.

Ah yes I forgot football only started in 92 or was it 93 and not a couple of seasons earlier Point was simply that Thursday night football is a killer if you want to put a complete season together. Feel sure there will be examples of teams that have done both but most all evidence points to it dampening league form. Enough flakey big 6 teams to have ambitions but from the outside I wouldn't have you as among the favourites for CL football

I'd be crossing everything I had that Man United win the cup if you value a top CL finish. Can't see you have the squad depth to do the Conference and the League and you're likely to go a long way in the Conference after all. Really notable this season how all the teams in Europe bombed in the second half of the season bar Arsenal and City and they both have amazing squad depth. Villa for instance were 10 points down with no particular injury crises (39 points in GW19 and 68 points in GW38), Liverpool same sort of story and Brighton and West Ham were only just over the relegation zone on second half of the season form. Don't think I've left out any other teams in Europe last season there Conference and 8th place? Really fast start to the season and slowly roll home as per Villa this time also possible of course

Search me. Didn't have a clue he had this in him and it surely can't be sustainable as that would make him a slightly better version of Drogba. His shooting accuracy stats though are kind of curious in that respect - can't all be confidence. Improvement partly down to the fact he's receiving the ball 30 yards nearer the goal. Also noteworthy that Glasner has form here: Kolo Muani went from relatively humdrum to lethal when he rocked up at Eintract and now looks just okay imo at PSG. He plays a system that focusses on getting the ball to the CF in good positions. Sounds simple no?

You clearly haven't focussed enough on Mateta's ability to hit the target. Factor in some improvement with a full preseason under Glasner and rationally deduct 2 years from his age for the time spent under Roy and I confidently predict a 45 goal season and value of *reads up thread* 180 million this time next year and plenty of time to improve further

Personally not taking Football Insider as any form of source - aggregator of clickbait and no more - and recent snippet not news. Could still happen. My earlier response was that there was zero chance of Dougie leaving or agreeing to midseason. None. As it happens Palace now look an interesting prospect and I wouldn't take it as a lack of ambition to see how far that can go in the next 12-18 months. More an ambition fulfilled. Doubt if salary is the issue - more reassurances about direction of travel with outgoing transfers. Newcastle obvs have a higher ceiling but in some senses he'd be moving back. You still have a lot of deadwood to clear - that process is almost done at Palace now (albeit at a lower level) and has taken a good 3 seasons - and rationally until you have cleared the dead wood there are limits to how far you can go. It's about managing the departures as well as the incomings. Fighting the uber machines you need to make every pound in salary and transfer fee pay. At the level you're aiming for you really do need 22 starters with cover in every position to compete on equal terms - that will take years to achieve and otherwise you're relying on no Euro football and injury droughts.

Underestimating his connection to Palace Mr Big Balls ? this stint as DoF is simply what has made him sexy outside Selhurst. Not an unbroken spell but he’s been here since 1995 in various guises for approx 20 years. Club icon and that’s a two way street. This is his team as much as anyone’s and could be he reckons Henderson/Johnstone, Guehi, Andersen, Richard’s, Munoz, Doucoure, Wharton, Olise, Eze and Mateta have potential. Maybe only of course. Doubt any would break into a top 7 side. Very unambitious to stay put and avoid the money move and trust in what he has built. probably just waiting for the other United to up their offer - surely he couldn’t turn down them too. No one is that loyal.

Not really - just another Dougie scouting pick.

Now now. He had the choice of being at the Newcastle game so surely that shows a firm intention to stay put And I'm not referencing your mighty victory in winning the Northumberland Senior Cup here!