I cannot speak for other PL clubs as I am not au fait with the precise details of their overall financial situation, so I am unable to assert what constraints they are working under and the relative constraints of individual clubs.Finances can be highly complex ! I doubt however there is a 'Level playing field'. To be fair,CPFC are not using 'Financial constraints' as an excuse.

Edited by Willo (10 Dec 2018 12.35pm)

Zat right?

I would've thought capital expenditure and revene expenditure were two different things and the problem with the wage bill is not that it stops us making money available for fees, but that it stops us making money available for wages, and that in turn means not only can we not sign players with high transfer fees; it means we can't sign anyone. Unless of course we can dispose of Mutch, Puncheon, and so forth. That we would only get a few million in fees for such players isn't so much the isdue; more that we don't have to keep feeding them.

Edited by chateauferret (10 Dec 2018 12.51pm)

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The Ferret
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We made a huge investment in Benteke and we've been burnt. I remember his solo goal against us for Villa and thinking at the time, this is what we have needed for years. SP and co invested and delivered the guy most of us thought was the perfect fit. He still could be if he was half the player he could be. The catch is we can't even shift him unless he demonstrates some ability to find the net, at the moment he can't even be trusted to score a penalty.

A state of the art machine gun is no good without bullets. We have no striker who can score goals, we have no bullets. If we can sort that out I think the pressure will be taken off the rest of the squad - players are being played out of position to compensate for our weaknesses up front.

In perspective I feel we have to play like a top 10 team in midfield to score a goal - then we need to play out of our skin to cling onto the win in this league. Everything we do is limited by our lack of firepower and it is taking us down.

SP gave us Benteke, unfortunately we got burnt, it happens in football. They will need to deliver again. We've always been on borrowed time with Zaha (amazed he is still with us to be honest), and it is a joke we haven't used the time with him dragging us up to build a big stable squad around him so when he finally goes (or gets injured) we are able to win games still.

I'm not a huge Hodgson fan, but I can't see anyone else doing much better with this squad - which is stupid because we have some incredible talent and even WH is playing well.

The board has failed us in my view, they have had so much time to give us stability. Just classic palace, just enough to give us hope of a big future but still little enough to ensure we can only just about muddle through with our deficiencies and enjoy a relegation battle every year.

Freedman has no experience or justification for having the role except he is a yes man.

FDB had no business being our manager whatsoever.

Common denominator is both hired by the same boss.

We are financially constrained, and it is Parish’s fault. That’s how money works. Spend too much and you run out.

Trump lost. Badly. Hahahahahahaha.

If Riedewald had been given a proper shake maybe he would give a sh&t and wouldnt be overweight.

He came through at Ajax - they have a world class youth system and generate a lot of very good footballers.

When he got a shot he was the best player for us against Man City last year.

I am not watching the training sessions, but that doesnt mean that RH always makes the best decisions when he picks the team.

The handling of Sorloth has been very poor aswell, he was guaranteed to fail with 30 mins here and there. If you are going to say a player is good enough to sign, then give him a fair chance.

Sometimes you have to take a chance and trust a player's pedigree. Riedewald came through at one of the truly elite acamedies in world football, and he is not good enough to warm our bench ahead of Puncheon?

Trump lost. Badly. Hahahahahahaha.

Well said that man. Expectations appear to be that we should be like say Everton by now. We are punching above our weight for a reasonably small club and managing our budget is probably far harder than for many other teams in this division. You only have to look at Newcastle to understand that there is no entitlement to sit at the top of the top table. If it were simply down to bums on seats and gate income then they would be right up there consistently with the top 6.

I agree that we should be seen to be progressing, but however well we do there will always be those that complain that we should be doing better.

I’m just happy being a Palace fan because I might have to watch some s***e at times but I know that for a portion of the season at least, we will play like Barcelona.