I have always said, and I know it's damn hard, but a club should never get relegated from the richest league in the world and be ruined.

We all know it's hard to make money and not lose money for chairmen, but if you are in the championship and you break even or sorts each year and you get promoted, like how we were, if you don't spend a penny, and go down straight away, that's 100 mil in the bank including parachute payments.
I saw somewhere that our accounts look pretty good... the sale of AWB helped that a lot. So this summer we should be at the point where we have realized... our big earners have to be justified and the smaller earners have to justify why we should give them more...
Right now, Wickham, Benteke, Zaha and Meyer have high wages. Of those, in ym mind, Meyer is the one I would keep.
So, with that in mind, you prepare replacements for two strikers and wilf.

Then you look at who we have and we either make it work or we change and adapt.

So many people are welcoming relegation as a chance to reset, reboot. To one extent, I agree, drastic measure take drastic actions... but as I have said, the club, could just look at this summer as if we have been relegated... and then, plan for life in the champ to get straight back up... so you invest in good champ players with something to prove, who are hungry, unearth quality from abroad that want to shine in the prem... then, with that notion, you then hypothetically 'find yourself back in the prem' and you trust this team until December... in jan transfer window you reassess the situation... if you need to reshuffle, you do... and you find the team that works.

behind the scenes you invest in youth and scouting...

so to sum up, this summer we reinvest... in youth, in prospects.. less on big names, more on potential.. it will be tough, but the back bone in the team is there and over two years the dead wood and big names are out and in is a team that works for itself, gets to stay in the league and enjoys a cup run.

This was once a quality forum....

Goals conceded 14th, 13 teams worse than us.
If not for Liverpool drubbing we would be top three.

See, picking and choosing stats you like is easy

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

Deadly serious. We will never be a top 6 club without an Abramovich or similar buying us so I would much rather see us fighting for a title one league down than playing the monotonous shiite at home we have had to experience. We just make up the numbers in the PL and to see us struggling week in week out is not that great.

When you are saying you don’t want to witness that standard of football again, well you do already, because the bottom 12 or 13 teams in the PL play no better than the top 12 or13 in the Championship.

I can accept that argument but I am of the opinion that there are 8 or 9 teams max who can get into the Champions League and the rest might as well be playing in the Championship. One swallow doesn't make a summer as Norwich have found out, but Wolves are different as are Burnley, as are Sheffield Utd. They made it up and stayed up, but mostly because them along with us and others can only really beat each other. Wolves are trying to push on with their new found wealth but they are finding it tough. Everton can't break into that top level. Spending money is no guarantee of success either unless it is a massive amount.

As for your last paragraph, is that because the teams in the Championship are harder to beat?

No, it's because we would lose a lot of our players and would probably struggle to finance or attract suitable replacements. Team/club morale may also be an issue.

I do get where you're coming from, the excitement of the championship is greater than that of mid-table PL obscurity for me.

What I am arguing though is that our goal will or would always be to get back to where we are now.

It's in no way guaranteed and may be a bit fanciful, but with where we are now we may be better off financially at worst and at best have the chance to compete in one of the best leagues in the world with possible improved chances of a decent cup run or, who knows, Europe.

There's also the fact that we are on TV a lot more now than we would be as a championship side (I am a ST holder and do get to a few away games in case that question pops up), we are on MOTD, have a higher status than our traditional rivals and we occasionally get to beat the likes of Man U, Arsenal, West Ham, even City and Liverpool etc which were only pipe dreams for me for a number of years.

Summarily, I do get your point so not shooting it down, I just think despite the frequent lows we've experienced in the last few years we should not lose sight of what we have now.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

I've just been a saddo and done a bit of research on teams promoted to the Prem who were relegated the NEXT season. it doesn't make pretty reading

No. of times ALL promoted teams stayed up = 3
No. of times 1 team went down next season = 13
No. of times 2 teams went down next season = 9
No. of times 3 teams went down next season = 1

in other words, promoted teams struggle to stay up and we will see the same again this year with Norwich (probably) and Villa (possibly) dropping down.

The gulf between top six of Championship and bottom half of Premier League is significant.

We need to stay in the prem for the reasons in the second to last paragraph. The prem is the place to be, it gives us a high profile. But times like now and perhaps the remainder of this season I understand why fans would like us back in the championship as winning more matches makes our weekends better. Not sure though that if we go down we wouldn’t do a Charlton or Millwall and fall even further backwards?

Your promise land of the championship isn’t the wonderful place you seem to think. Half of the clubs are in debt up to their eyeballs, the standard is overall poor, if we do well we end up back in the Premier again, so what’s the point in trying to win games. We go up like Notwich and Villa ,the gulf is so big now between the leagues, only a few survive. Sheffield Utd have done well this season, but the second season generally catches up with them.
Clubs bigger than Palace have gone down, never to see the Premier again and have all struggled ie Leeds and Forrest.

Be careful what you wish for!

Not a personal criticism, but the above is what Charlton fans were saying about Alan Curbishley.

Wigan played really attacking football a few years back.

Palace are not going to 'the next level' without some serious wonga spent. The Premiership reality is sinking-in with Palace fans.

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (03 Jul 2020 4.41pm)

I disengage, I turn the page.

Two examples across two decades... it’s not ‘the reality’ - there are tens of teams who have come up and stayed up playing far far better than we do now. We’ve bloody done it ourselves on numerous occasions, so why are we making out it’s impossible or unrealistic?

Wigan also won an FA cup, by the way, and stayed up for 8 years with a vastly inferior budget and playing squad to what we do now - not a bad example at all.

It’s telling none of those defending Hodgson can tackle the specific criticisms, just peddle this nonsense narrative that the only alternative is relegation.

We’re all fans, but this theme that anyone criticising Hodgson after a season this bad is ‘entitled’ or doesn’t know what you they’re talking about is pathetic - I’d suggest its those who are happy with what we’re being served up with the 10th highest wage bill in the division that are delusional.

We are heading towards a relegation unless something changes - the numbers we’ve served up this year are completely unsustainable. Any basic level of analysis would show you that.