Townsend played the best football of his career under Benitez at Newcastle and looked so dangerous cutting in and shooting the way he did.

Maybe they just click as people. Good luck to Townsend if he has a final flourish. We paid him well but clearly he struggled to be both a defender and an attacker with us. And I think that's what we needed him to be.

Some interesting comments about the other players who have left and what they're doing now. Also interesting to consider what players still with us would do next.

Very few of our starters on Saturday (from the Roy era) would be starters at mid table prem clubs or higher. Some would start in the championship, maybe even the lower reaches of the championship.

Maybe some had untapped potential that Roy refused to develop. But when that is the level of your quality, you need to be careful how you play too.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

Throughout Townsends career he has had short purple patches and longer stretches where he didn't make an impact. That was why Spurs let him go originally, and that was after he was playing well enough to be an England regular. I will be surprised (and pleased for him) if he keeps this up for the season.

As for Roy, wish folk would just give it a rest, hijacking every thread with continuing anti-Roy rhetoric has got really, really boring. He did a great job, he's gone, move on.

I agree some people are being too one-dimensional in slating our old boss. And I agree with those who say he kept us up.

That said, Townsend discussed the difference in how Hodgson and Benitez wanted him to play and his analysis of how that affected his performances.

So I would say it's about Hodgson as much as Townsend and why the haters are out.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

I had assumed the reason Townsend spent so much time in his own half in recent seasons was because he was more comfortable there and didn’t trust his pace and attacking thrust when on the offensive.
He clearly feels from the interview that Roy wanted him to concentrate on the defensive side of the game whereas Benitez has told him to forget about that side of the game and concentrate on being an attacking threat.
I was not a Roy fan in that he seemed to neglect the attacking side of the game even against weaker teams.
What I can’t dispute is that many of the players Roy ignored despite a clamour from many (including me ) to play them have done nothing to suggest he was wrong to ignore them.

Yes of course all the best to Andros, and I'm sure he'll get a great reception whenever he comes back to Selhurst Park.
But of all the players we let go, he's the only one wanted by another Premier League club,and that is a reflection of the quality of player Roy had to work with, while keeping Palace completely free of relegation worries.

Benitez, can only free Townsend up like that, because he knows, or at least , thinks his mid field and defensive options are good enough to cope without Townsends help.
Hodgson rarely had that security, there were times when he was able to risk ,allowing Townsend as much freedom as Wilf, all to often it back fired in particular in the last two seasons. For much of the time the injury list insured it wasn’t possible anyway.
Hodgson, did what he had to do, if we were to remain in the division, with very little improvement made to the squad. That squad at Everton, has cost four or five times what even our present group have cost, they should be able to cope with having a Townsend ,in the side. We will never know what Hodgson might have achieved for Palace, with more investment in his squad. What we do know is we are still in the league, on virtually no investment in players.. Not anyone could have done that.