Trouble is that we also heard ages ago that both Lampard and Dyche also have the job too

I disagree with the idea that the manager and players know what is happening next year but are keeping quiet. Football doesn't really work that way anyway (it is notorious for gossip), but more to the point, presuming at least half the out of contract players and probably the management too will be leaving, why would a bunch of people who won't be here next year owe us their discretion?

The manager and players are not as in the dark as we are of course, simply because they will know for sure if each of them has been offered a contract or not. We have no idea on that front. Otherwise, I think they are all waiting to find out if they are wanted at Palace next year or not, as Townsend said recently.

The really interesting thing is that SP has attached so little value to the lot of them as to let their contracts run down like this. That might be a game of bluff on his part. If he acts too keen too quick to keep someone like Benteke or Townsend then they hold the upper hand, and will not entertain a reduced wage to stay. If he acts like he's quite prepared to lose them if they won't take a lower wage, then he holds the cards so long as nobody gazumps him. Perhaps he thought a combination of covid, the players current (unrealistic) wages, and poor performance levels had reduced the chances of someone else coming in and offering these players a pre-contract. Looks like he was right. Looks like he can offer some of these players a new deal on lower wages, and they might end up taking it now when they wouldn't have done 12 months ago. If so, it was a risk but it worked, well played SP.

Alternatively, maybe he just isn't interested in employing them again, but isn't saying so because they might down tools when we still need one more win.

Surely if Roy we’re leaving at the end of the season it’d be announced by now? It doesn’t serve anyone’s interest to wait until the end of the season, we’re already safe.

The only real reason to get rid of Roy at this point is to appease a quite vocal section of disgruntled fans. Other than that I’m not sure what Parish is set to gain from letting him go if he wants to stay on for another year.

The fact of the matter is we’re going to be hard pressed to do better than Roy, who is actually an underrated manager whose achievements have been insultingly disregarded by too many of our fans. We’re certainly not going to do better with some of the names mentioned here.

People will no doubt reference the brand of football but that doesn’t account for the lack of investment. Roy actually has a record of playing quite attacking football most places he’s been and if he were to replicate that with the squad we have, we’d be overrun week in week out. Even in this department, without investment, we’ll be hard pressed to do better than Roy. And some of the names quoted here are laughable. Dyche? What football are you expecting from him? Howe? He got relegated with a Bournemouth side that spent big. Lampard? Are you actually serious?

We're the Arthur over ere!

If Howe has the job, why are we showing Lampard around the training ground?

Not according to Davey Provan . . .

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Done deal apparently, kind of, ish, maybe, deffo, sort of . . .

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
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Very good post. To continue your line of argument, either we have money to buy a few new, better, quicker, probably younger players who will improve the team, or we don't.

If we do then why shouldn't Hodgson have the benefit of the investment? He is being judged for the awful football we play but has had next to no money spent on the team. Most posters who are 'Roy out' stress that they have no unreasonable expectations regarding sexy football at Palace, and just want a bit more entertainment and endeavour. Why wouldn't a reinforced team under Hodgson provide that?

If we don't have the money for any new players then all the more reason to keep Roy.