I think we all know that depends on the manager working near miracles a lot of the time, apart from Allardyce’s essential spending because of the damage done by Pardew.

COYP

It's management by serendipity but as Napoleon once said he would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good

i dont beleive rough diamonds should cost £10m each, with correct scouting you must be able to sign 4 teenagers for £10m from around the globe or the lower leagues.

im not digging sórloth out, just using him as an example, but what he has shown since january we could have blooded a kiddie & been no worse off, it seems to me roy took a “tip” from one of his scandinavian mates & it cost us £10m he may turn i to harry kane but i doubt it.

think long term, develop them for 2 years time...

i dont count the likes of sórloth or jairo rough diamonds, at 22 sórloth they should be 1st team ready in this day & age.

ive always been a advocate of giving kids the chance of being squad players & moving forward it has to be the sustainable way, otherwise there is f*** all point in having an academy!

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway

Kids like Sorloth don’t grow on trees in our academy unfortunately Brauny. The bloke is a specimen. And I think he will go on to be a very decent forward.

"We love you Palace, we f@cking hate Man U, We love you Palace, we hate the brighton too, We love you Palace we play in red 'n' blue, so f@ck you, and you ...

This is down from memory, so i could have mistakes.
Halloway in the prem, scattergun approach too many to list, Gayle being the top signing, chamakh, hunt, kebe, etc but we also lost Zaha. Holoway - is style is attacking - on pitch it just wasn't working.

Pulis signed: Dann, Ledley, Puncheon and Hennessey, Hangeland, Kelly and Campbell. Paid out, but then got it back.

We can see where Pulis was going with this, sensible buys, just to get us over the line without busting the bank - They suited his style with punch and Dann being fan favs. Solid defense and counter attack.

Warnock comes in on a two year contract - brings in on loan Zaha.
Warnock let go early. Paid out.
Lost money on warnock, not really changed the squad too much. Nothing changed too much.

Pardew, 3 year contract and they also paid 3.5 million to newcastle. Cabaye, Mandanda, Benteke, Townsend, Adebayor, Mutch. We lost a couple of characters - Jedi, Yaniick, FFS.
Wanted to play expansive football, a couple of signings showed that intent. It never really worked out - pardew just wasn't up to it.

After that Steve Parish said Pardew's "expansive style of football hasn't worked", and, "Now we're going to wind the dial back the other way."

Big Sam - must have been a hefty wage, 3 years at 2.5?? Signs Schlupp, PVA, Sakho? Millivojevic.
He has come in, worked on the defense, sets signings to accommodate that - so the pardew era scratched off, all those signings, weren't really needed as didn't perform no better than what Pulis had.

FDB: Reidwald, loans RLC, TFM probably given a nice contract too. Sacked after a month.
Not much to say.

Roy. worked wonders with 3 managers worth of players, signs two players in january that didn't even feature, a keeper ditto and an expensive norwegian kid.

Pardew royally messed us up and the contingency plan was, in my mind to rectify things this summer - identify who stays, who goes, what.s needed to bolster.

That doesn't look like it. It looks like 'oh we need ya but can't afford ya, oh by then' and 'hmmm who is cheap and will wanna come to us'.

This summer was the summer to spend the money so we got to 40 points in a good manner, and then summer after, slight adjustments. Rather than every two years, massive over haul.

The bold players - expensive and Sakho was billed as a necessity and a must buy.

I think had Pulis stayed one more season - which he may well have done if things were different, we would be in a different spot now i am sure.

This was once a quality forum....

I agree, but I'm not sure we can spend 10M on players who cannot (at least on paper) have an immediate impact. It's hard to see how we can spend 10M on people that we then send out to face Margate or Bromley.

The top clubs do spend a lot/year for young talents, but that money doesn't come out of the main transfer budget and they've got a better loan system to make sure those players gain experience (of course, Chelsea is a negative/extreme example of that).

If we have 10M to spend, I'd say spend it on senior players. But to get 2-3 good senior players for roughly 3-5M each takes good scouting and having good connections in second-tier European leagues (e.g. Belgium, Greece, Austria etc.). Fat Sam did a good job finding Luka, we should be doing more of that. But then again, Luka was 11-12M, so that standard of player seems out of reach at the moment.