Do you think George Burley by taking the Palace job was on a hiding to nothing,in much the same way Alan Smith was the last time we came out of administration? Decimated squad,no coaching staff,embargo,it would take one hell of a manager to turn it all around in six months.

Edited by JayCee (01 Jan 2011 11.07pm)

My question is actually serious. After the rubbish I have had thrown at me today on here I think it's a question I should be allowed to ask.

Steve:

1. There have been a lot of rumours -- and I realise that you're not going to speak directly to rumours for legal reasons -- about certain aspects of George Burley's behaviour and general personal conduct both in recent months and before he came to Palace. Without, as I said, directly addressing the rumours, do you feel you did adequate due diligence on Burley prior to hiring him last summer? Results aside, do you feel personally let down by where things have ended up. Yes or no answer will do.

2. It's often said, and I'm sure you agree it's true, that a well run organisation rehearses various scenarios and thus has solutions to problems at hand as soon as those problems become real. Without implying that you'd interview candidates for the manager's position while you had a manager in place, would it be fair to say that you've given some thought to what you'd do in the situation in which you now find yourself and, as a result, you're already hitting the ground running in the search for a permanent manager?

3. To what extent did George acknowledge to you that it hadn't worked out? Did he give any indication that things had plummeted to a lower point than he'd anticipated and, if yes, did he give any reason why he thought we'd reached this point in terms of our performances on the pitch? I'm sure he believes he could have turned things round, given time, but was he shocked just how poorly things had become? Did he acknowledge that, for want of a better expression, we really are in a pretty desperate place?

4. Given that, short of a very quick hire, we now enter the transfer window with significant change needed and no manager in place, who's going to drive personnel decisions from here on?

Should we have waited until we lost to Preston as well!

Where does all this 'small squad' stuff come from ?

We lost 3 0 to scunthorpe, wage bill 50% of ours, we lost 3 0 to Millwall today, I dont know what theres is but its basically the side that got promoted from League one plus sone low cost or free signings. swansea dont have a bigger wage bill than us. Ok Bors is 5x's ours but .......

we lost two players who were first team regulars at the end of the season in CH and SD. Other than that the players were let go or sold by the manager.