dose Roy have a say in any signings ? 3 in in January 2 out in July

Edited by Midlands Eagle (25 Jul 2018 12.40pm)

If you’ll pardon the pun.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Wouldn't he have to have worn them at least once for that statement to be accurate?

The fact that Jach has gone on loan, Rakip never made an appearance and the goalkeeper came in a month late highlights how difficult our club finds it to spend money well. Sakho, Benteke, Townsend and Cabaye all came in on big wages and Wilf got bumped up so we needed those cheap picks from the smaller European leagues to work out, and they clearly haven't. I believe Sorloth will be a good signing. May not set the world on fire but certainly seems a solid squad player. Still, he's unproven and cost £9,000,000. I expected Jach to at least be on the bench this season but Roy didn't seem particularly over the moon when he signed and his lack of enthusiasm seems justified. May come back a great player after a season of top flight football but it doesn't look promising.

Luka is the only player we have bought in (over the last 3 seasons) who nobody (bar football hipsters and Willo) had heard of and is a real gem. You could make a case for Pape being a decent PL left back for his price but certainly not a gem and a player who should have been on our radar when looking for a LB. I was excited about Jimmy Mac coming in from Wigan, and he's been a great servant. However we signed him in our second PL season and the scouting doesn't seem to have improved. You would have hoped our scouting department would be picking players with potential or some experience at our level each season. And they really haven't. When we were playing in the Championship we put together a great team on relatively little money. The quality is much higher in the PL but surely there are people with the ability to identify talent out there, and we should be employing them. I grew up in the era of Dougie and love the guy despite his discretions, but is he the best we can do in that position ? I want to have ex players at the club as it clearly works but if they're not performing the job to the high standard required they need to go (Pardew, cough cough). He's also in a role which is more data driven than personality driven, so his passion for the club has less value than Mark Bright's. Rather him than Iain Moody though....

We all knew about PVA (good player, overpriced), Schluppy (who has been better than expected but still very expensive, and unwanted by Leicester), Andros & Tommo. We spent a lot of money on these players (Tommo, Hammers were laughing at us), and if the transfer fees were reasonable we pay them bigger wages (Andros). They're also all players whose clubs didn't want them or we paid over the odds for. When you look at some of the business that Watford, Burnley, and Leicester have done you really start to question our transfer policy. Kante, Richarlison and Tarkowski immediately spring to mind. All great players, and have been sold on or increased in value immensely. If we can't compete with Burnley's scouting network because of our wage bill and the extra 8,000 seats in the Main Stand then we may find ourselves in trouble. I fully trust the board and I want Steve to be in charge but it seems like we're setting ourselves up for another season where we struggle, which isn't going to keep Wilf here and will make it more difficult to attract players next season.

I thought the lesson would have been learnt after last year when FDB came in. He thought he could change the players and make them better, but they weren't good enough for his system/his system didn't work. The squad was thin last season and is thinner/definitely not good enough at this moment in time. Our first 11 was great when there were no injuries last year but Yohan Dubai and RLC have gone and as we experienced multiple times any injuries and we become a below average PL team. Surely the American's can see they need to protect the investment ? isn't that something they could assist with ? This isn't Steve's fault entirely, he's not a Sheikh with billions and billions in his pocket, but I would have expected the board to come together, assign some funds to the playing side of the football club (the most important part), keep Roy happy and strengthen the areas we so clearly need strengthening in.

We're broke (financially) this summer. We can sell Wilf and spend the money but will be charged extortionate prices because people know we have cash, while simultaneously losing our best player. Look at Swansea last season with Sigurdsson. Or we can keep hold of Wilf but not sign anybody. Will Ruben come back knowing the squad is weaker than the squad that struggled last season ? Why didn't Yo stay for another season when he's only 32 ? Are the board telling them there's no money to spend and you're gonna be battling for 38 games to just stay up. That's not an attractive prospect. We should be selling ourselves as the team where you play alongside Wilf, Sakho, Townsend, Benteke, PVA, and if they get injured we have adequate back ups. Not the team where when the first choice does an acl we have Championship (at best) replacement. Love Jonny, love Sullay, but are they Premier League squad players ? If they were under the age cap and we didn't have to include them in the 25 then it's great, but Jonny is a highly talented but injury prone Championship player and Sullay hasn't done anything in a PL game to deserve a place in the 25.

I haven't posted here for a while due to being away (Melbourne, not prison), but there are a very knowledgable and passionate group of fans here and they all say the same thing. We are not playing in a league were you can risk it for a season and hope to stay up. We need to be proactive in the market and fix the shortcomings from last season. I sincerely hope the club do that. If Wilf leaves late in the window we are nailed on to go down, and when you go to watch the game at 2am and pay 10 quid for a pint that really smarts !

Apologies for the long post/rant. Jach going on loan set me off. And if anybody reads this far and has/knows someone with a spare ticket for Fulham/Watford one of our Aussie born Palace fans is in the UK for the first 4 games of the season and is desperate for a ticket. He's a bit weird (Weird as in he's an Aussie born and bred Palace fan who goes to watch Melbourne City away regularly, which involves flying), but he's absolutely no trouble, I'd happily put some sort of bond down for him if he could get a ticket, and it would make his decade ! He's all sorted for home games but Fulham away seems a big deal

"Brighton are talking about how they're coming for us. And it's like, we've been waiting in the Premier League for you for ages." Wilfried Zaha, 2017.