Unless we go abroad we're going to get absolutely fleeced on a striker. The Prem teams all know it, they are'nt going to sell unless it's silly money. I think Gayle was sold as part of the Townsend deal but I also think the board thought the Benteke deal was closer than it's turned out.

£20m+ for Berahino is silly money, he's good but nowhere near that good and with only 12 months on his contract it's ridiculous. I would rather spend £10-12m twice on foreign strikers with some goal pedigree but not massive names that give us a couple of different options with unknown quantity. This window is going to be mental for the Premier league.

Edited by Icepick Tony (22 Jul 2016 10.23pm)

"They got his own song 'He's just too good for you', it's quite unbelievable but when you see it and he's facing up someone - I actually feel sorry for them, 'Cos he actually is" - Ian Holloway

Unfortunately we left us ourself desperate after the lack of strengthing the forward line since promotion with any quality.

Another Damien Diagonal - Total Football

Even after the valuation for said player has been met? Something doesn't add up.

"Look at that. Accident blackspot? These aren't accidents! They're throwing themselves into the road gladly! Throwing themselves into the road to escape all this hideousness!"

Not going to happen. Along with Benteke. They don't want to come to Palace regardless of the the figure that we're not going to offer that would be accepted, and regardless of a WBA replacement being found in Berahino's case. We will end up with something like Ulloa and a relatively unknown foreign striker loan signing. Not being negative just realistic as the major issue here with strikers, the holy grail, is not being in Europe.

Happy to donate £5 to the value of every £1 million pounds spent on either Benteke or Berahino signing for us, to the most popular charity of alls choosing.

Would love to be proven wrong - not that I think Berahino is the right fit!

Agreed. Going abroad looks the only option for some value, it's a gamble but we need a striker and the season is getting closer. Finishing 15th doesn't help persuade foreign players we are not relegation candidates.

The ups and downs of Palace have left me older than my years

Berahino isn't better than Gayle imo. We've needed a top striker since promotion and so far all we've done is sell the one that was PL level. Get in Benteke or move on quickly, go abroad as you say - splash the cash on a proven top level striker. If we can't get one selling Gayle will prove to be an error of judgement on a massive scale. Not panicking yet though far too long to go.