Agree. If Parish and the club aren’t careful this could be the window/season when they lose an awful lot of goodwill and support. Not sure Roy was the right decision for another year and I suspect they’re not backing him because they rely on him to get a tune out of what will be an ageing squad (again) if we sell the youngsters. I mean keep Tomkins and sell O’Brien wtf?

I see little ambition and yet again we’ve bought an injured player (in Franca).
Club needs to do something and if I see another speculative post saying a signings a ‘done deal’ when it patently isn’t I’ll scream.

We have a couple of weeks but there does need to be some movement and some incomings as we appear to have swerved some decent signings. Lerma will prove to be a decent bit of business but losing Wilf and Olise is a tough window. If we lose a CB and Eze then we may as well resign ourselves to a difficult relegation battle or worse.

Edited by Helmet46 (16 Aug 2023 3.54pm)

Hi Everyone, first comment here,

A lot of fans seem to be worried about the current situation and it is a shame to watch our developing talent leave the club but isn't this the whole point of the business model and our clubs current position in the league?

We have much lower revenues than the clubs we are competing with and need to grow bit by bit. The training facilities for the first team and then the academy were the first steps and look to be bearing fruit from next season onwards when the intial crop should have progressed through the leagues to finally have championship experience...in fact Jake O'Brien has just moved on as has Scott Banks temporarily at least.

I'm nervous if the online press is to be believed and they all leave i.e. Zaha, Olise, Doucoure, Eze, Guiata and Andersen or Guehi as that's pretty much the spine but to be fair the club picked up these great talents all in the last 3 seasons.

The people who picked out those talents and built this squad can do so again as they are still there in the recruitment and coaching set up. Hopefully they have many targets to strengthen the team.

If 'bigger' clubs pick off our best players they are inadvertently strengthening our club for the long term. I'm hopeful that although we may not have the level of experience in any new recruits we will have enough to survive and build for the long term stability and success of our club.

We probably have to also recognise that most of our younger players who joined Palace had an agreement (verbal or otherwise) that we would be used as a stepping stone club (the reality of where we are now - which is better than the championship).

If we block their paths then future youngsters will choose other clubs over us. Our management will be looking at the bigger picture as well as at the individual players and what they can offer.

I for one am excited that the 'big clubs' are now trying to pick off our talent. It means were doing well.

Up the Palace!

I hear you, but isn't the whole point of business and not just football to manage risk? It would be lower risk short term to not change the side but if we have a team of unhappy players that could be tough for Roy to manage and cause it's own problems.

Also, for me Sheff Utd and Luton are virtually down before the season starts so it's one of a few other contenders (yes it could include us i guess). If we're going to take the gamble then maybe it's now?

In addition I'm not saying i wouldn't want all the players to stay, I would love it if we had the money and the will to spend more on strengthening key areas like new wingers and another striker (plus maybe a left and right back, keeper too) while finally building that stand. But with the current ownership group they've demonstrated we are not prepared to spend much.

I'd still say having players picked off for more than we bought them for suggests we are actually doing things well. Even if it's not as quick in terms of progress than we'd all like.

I'm still feeling positive, even if we go down, we now have an academy with loads of talent starting to come through...

Agreed, It's the best it's ever been for me as a Palace fan and that's since the mid 80s

I suppose for some, includung me, the game and being a fan of a club is about dreams, vision and aspiration.
Not just looking around hoping for 3 worse teams each season.
Don't aim low and even then still miss.
We're all entitled to view things differently I suppose.

Agreed. For me, my ultimate ambition for the club is for us to have Premier League football in our increased capacity stadium. I'd be very happy with 11th every season, personally.

I've accepted that when a player joins us, they're joining us for the opportunity to play in the Premier League, against the world's best, hoping to put themselves in the shop window.

La la la your mum