Well spoked that man. There's none so blind as those that won't see. Hopefully Palace will see that signing players from bigger clubs is more fraught with risk than its worth.

Him and Tomkins were close to the best CB partnership outside the top 6 at the point of him signing.

He was only frustrating because he was actually good. Same as the anger when Bruce and Freedman left their manager roles - it was only because they were actually good at what they were doing that people were fussed. The injuries wiped him out and he was an absolute shadow of himself in the few games he played last year.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

He was good, but not great, and even at his best wasn't worth the money. I felt that Tomkins outperformed him for almost a third of the cost.

Sakho is the emperors new clothes. If you didn't know about his cv, price tag, wages, the club we were buying him from etc and just watched him play you could be forgiven for believing someone who told you he was a much loved but slightly comical and error prone club stalwart that had been with us for years, was effective on his day but wouldn't be a top class player in a million years.

A big, clumsy lump who was good at getting in the way but who spread panic every time he tried to step outside of those basics.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (28 Jul 2021 9.24am)

I know what you mean. There were a few occasions when Roy stated that Sakho had declared himself unfit and it appeared that Roy wasn't convinced.

Ultimately he was a prime example of what a minefield the transfer market is.

After the loan period performances, signing him permanently looked to be almost a ' no brainer '. Instead he became an expensive financial drain that couldn't be relied upon.

Old, Ungifted and White

For me the big lesson from the Sakho, Cabeye, Benteke, Milivojevic, Van Aanholt period was just how hard it is to sign an upgrade on a limited but committed player. Those five had more ability (and better careers) than Delaney, Ledley, Murray, Jedinak etc, but few of them needed to bust a gut for Palace in order to get the rewards a top player gets, and (crucially)as a group none of them needed to drag Palace to a significantly higher level in order to be considered good, valuable top flight players. They had little to prove and it showed.

This news has pleased me more than any signing. What more can be said about him that hasn’t already been said?