I think you might be in the minority in thinking Olise is on the fringe, and that Eze is a waste of money. Their form is up and down (more the latter lately), but we've every chance of getting a profit on both after getting a few years of skill and excitement.

Mateta is s***. Edouard has ability but has been poor. So that's one duff (for a relatively small outlay for a striker) and one on which the jury is out.

More to the point, where and why do you start and stop when assessing signings? The same people have been behind all our signings for years, and we have had a period of relative success unparalleled in over a century of trying, all within a limited budget. Not exactly evidence that they are incompetent, tight, greedy etc is it?

Good stuff.

Signing young, loaning out and selling on is of course what everyone is aiming to do. And I 100% agree that in Eze, Olise, Guehi, Doucoure, Ahamada etc we are signing or the future.

The key difference is in the levels of sophistication in the model. The players we are signing are good, I agree, but very different:

1. Our signings, partly as we have nothing else, are coming straight into the first team

2. They are hardly 'scouted'. Eze ripping up the champs, Olise young players of the season, Guehi captained England at every level, Doucoure a senior international. This isn't unearthing gems, its buying players with enough experience to make them sensible buys. Anyone, and I mean anyone who keeps us with football could scout these players.

They are signing players that nobody has even ever heard of.

They are also doing something that we aren't doing (apart from Sorloth), turn a profit on a player. Have we ever made profit off of another signing?

Their model is mature and working, our model could get there, but only time will tell.

And re blocking local players, not sure that's true either. dunk, March and Ferguson in the first team. Ben White sold recently.

It hard to know if Southampton had something really good (great local scouts or coaches) or just a purple patch with the academy. As I cant think of another decent player that's come though since JWP.

Similar to Utd, class of 92 was an anomaly. In Rashford and Greenwood they do still churn some out, but nothing like that period.

Whatever the ideals or model, something is wrong. Threadbare squad, and don't make any player profit.

Benteke was bought with a strategy in mind. We had the pacy wingers of Zaha and Bolasie and they were supposed to provide the ammunition for him to power home. When that didn't work out, and for all the outlay we seem to have been nonplussed at playing to strikers strengths since with a strategy.

Sorloth got 4 match starts under Roy. He has done well in Turkey and now Spain with Sociedad. It can't just be recruitment, it is coaching and strategy and tactics - and development too.

Connor G ended up unbalancing us and weve not adjusted this season. Midfield and Strikers coaching, need some ideas and guile.

Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.

Though I was not admirer of the man , Alex Ferguson’s achievements are unrivalled .
Obviously he had the team of 92 & money. However his ethos was to have 2 players in each position competing against each other & for back up in case 1 was injured.
When 1 of the players started to under achieve or just become too old Man U looked for a like for like replacement.
Therefore the team could function and play the system devised.
At the end it was difficult for him to replace players like Scholes & Giggs, but he carried on as he started.
Ferguson or whoever did the recruiitment was not afraid to blood every day players along side the better players, whichever made the team a team.
Unfortunately we do not keep a Manager long enough to build up a strategy of play all the current players & ones that come in can follow, however we should at least have 2 players for each position & moved on the players that are not up to it, like Luca, Ward, Thompkins etc.
There are bargains out there in other leagues waiting for their opportunity as Brighton, Brentford & Fulham have proved.
I really do think it is time Palace found an expert in recruitment, pay him well as it will pay dividends eventually, rather than Dougie Freedman, even though he has the clubs best interests at heart.

Parish likes to surround himself with lots of Palace old boys at the club, including Bright, Freedman, McCarthy, Powell and Derry (formerly, although apparently still on the payroll).
Nothing wrong with this in itself as these are people he may well trust and who he believes have the club’s best interests at heart.
However, from a dispassionate standpoint are they the best qualified in their positions that could be hired from a professional standpoint?
We’ve used another former player James Scowcroft as a scout , mainly in France.
I can’t believe that best practice means only employing Palace old boys.
This extends to extolling the virtues of Roy because he’s a Croydon boy and a Palace fan as if this makes him a better manager.
As a matter of fact, he’s had a very solid career which means he’s qualified to do the job anyway so the local connection is incidental rather than the key reason for his recruitment.
I’m not sure the same could be said about some others employed.
Perhaps this seems harsh, but if we want to aspire to improve in scouting and across the board, we surely have to look outside the Palace network too.