As it stands our squad is smaller, so that makes us weaker. I thought last season we were 2 to 3 players light, so in my mind we are going backwards at present. It might all change in the next 4 weeks, but from past experiences, I doubt it.

RH is a good manager, but if he isn’t given the tools to do the job then we are wasting a perfect opportunity to push on to the next level. Two of the promoted sides last season invested and stayed up, the third team, Newcastle were already a decent side and shouldn’t have been relegated in the first place, Benitez was brought in too late to save them.

That leads me on to the recruiting / scouting at our club, which is where Dougie Freedman comes in, wtf does he do, can we credit him for anything since he has been at the club?

We will never know if it was Parish's fault that the Niasse deal fell through. Given his track record on handling transfers, I wouldn't be surprised, but I digress. Deals fall through. Seemingly more at Palace than other clubs, but be that as it may.

What is Parish's fault 100% is leaving such critical deals to the absolute last minute, meaning when they do fall through (as they often do at Palace) we cannot possibly get a replacement in.

That is not only his fault, it is stupid, bloody minded and reckless.

How late will this window go before we replace Cabaye? Leave it to the last minute again, watch it go South, then start the season with no Cabaye or RLC in the midfield. Could easily happen with Steve at the controls.

Kind of like walking out of a transfer window with a total lack of depth up front; as per the Niasse fiasco.

Edited by Maine Eagle (14 Jul 2018 8.33pm)

Trump lost. Badly. Hahahahahahaha.

I thought the Niasse deal fell through because first Everton, then Palace weren’t prepared to pay the add on fees demanded by his agent.
Without exposure to the details how can the blame be attributed (to Palace, Everton, Niasse or the agent), all we know is Parish et al have limits in what they’re prepared to pay.
No s*** Sherlock, did we expect anything else.

As I said, the likes of us will never know why this, that or the other deals fall through.

As I also said, the idiocy is regarding putting all your eggs in one basket, then watching it disintegrate before your eyes only to be left with 15 minutes to get another player signed. When you do that you are leaving yourself exposed to the potential situation of being a premier league club without a single fit senior striker. Has any other club ever been in that position in the history of the premier league?

That, without any shadow of a doubt, is a Stevey special, or a Parish performance. Ergo it’s the chairman’s fault entirely.

Edited by Maine Eagle (15 Jul 2018 1.35am)

Trump lost. Badly. Hahahahahahaha.

Let's use a club like Burnley, watford and leicester or even southampton - there summer dealings should be comparable to ours.

Thing is, we are in the prem for the 6th season - so 4 good years of money being pumped into our club.

We should not be in this position. umpteen managers, high wage bill, struggling to find identity up until Roy came in - well there is one main guy at the head of all this - parish.

He's a businessman, and a lot of people know or assume that to be successful in business, you need to be ruthless - parish isn't a hero, he had the capital and he bought us - it's simple. He hasn't gone out of pocket, he hasn't remortgaged his home, he hasn't spent the years eating from asda or driving his mum's corsa to help make ends meet.

He knew what he was getting in to, fact is, he doesn't know how to run a football club, ofcourse the grass isn't greener as there are chairman like him just as bad, but there are also some very good chairmen that he could take a look at.
First thing he needs to do is be transparent - how many times has he promised us the world and given us bognor.
This summer, promised early doors business - yeah, leaving the club maybe.
He was off having his holidays watching the world cup - make no mistake, the bloke is doing all right - so let's take off the bubble wrap and expect the bloke at the head of a multimillion pound company to act like it, to treat the fans - a diverse bunch i must say- with a bit more respect.

Do i wanan see my chairman doing karaoke in some bar one summer, then off to russia the next whilst blokes are working double shifts to make the game on saturday - come on.

This was once a quality forum....

This post has been merged from a topic called 'Very little in the transfer pot this year' by Midlands Eagle

Extract from interview with Roy,

"Will it be a while before signings come in then?

Loan signings, yes.

With the budget restrictions we have got, we will still be looking to sign anyone who fits in with that and do it as early as we possibly can, if the right player is there.

But I am not expecting anyone to come in on loan in the next few days or weeks.

My information is that those clubs who might have players interesting for us, a la Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Timothy Fosu-Mensah, players of Premier League quality, we won't find out about that until the season gets much closer."

The immediate impression given is that we have very little money to spend on players. Apparently from something said in the same interview we are still paying for our current players. Roy is a realist, he knows what we have to work with and he says his primary objective is to ensure that our best players are still with us when the season starts.

I'm as sceptical as most on here when it comes to stories appearing online, but this does appear to have come direct from an interview, so I guess we are going to have to get used to the fact that there will be no big money spent this year.