spending above your means, and looking for the unreachable next level

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

If you'd asked me 10 years ago the question:
"How do you think the clubs finances will be if we stay in the PL for the next 10 years?"

I think I'd have said we'd be pretty solid. But we're not are we?
Are we really that skint?

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

What do Brighton, Brentford and Fulham have in common? They have not been in the Premier League every one of the last 10 years (in fact considerably less). They do not appear to be spending an incredibly high percentage of their income on players’ wages. Two of them have new stadiums and the other has a new stand being completed. In at least two cases they keep scouting and recruiting players for modest purchase fees who then gain massively in value and are often sold on for huge prices, so further enhancing their finances. They are playing consistently decent football and often defeating the top sides. They are all currently above Palace in the league table.

So the question is with 10 consecutive years in the Premier does it feel that Palace are seriously lagging behind such clubs now? It was not long ago that if anyone suggested Brighton were a bigger and more successful club it would have been laughable. Not so sure that’s true anymore, which is a very painful realisation

Is the title of this thread some kind of joke ??

I would say it doesn't impress. At this point, it doesn't impress at all.

I think survival in your first two, maybe three years after promotion when you're still establishing yourself impresses. The seven years after that, you've accumulated multiple years of PL money and you have an inbuilt advantage over promoted sides. Almost every year, at least two of the promoted sides go back down so in reality, established PL clubs generally are only trying to avoid one relegation place a season. Dodging that bullet after your first three years in the PL really isn't that impressive. If you can't manage to finish above one promoted team with years of PL cash in the bank, you deserve to go down.

After your third season, what impresses is progress (not survival). OK, you're probably not going to reach the top six but "impressive" is making the top ten (8th, 9th, 10th place). And if not that, 11th-14/15th is acceptable. That's what we've done the past few seasons. Last year, we hinted at real progress for probably the first time but the board has shown no appetite to pursue that by augmenting our squad with players who could nail down that progress and pursue the top ten. So at this point, we're really not impressing anyone. We're just doing what you'd expect a club with ten years of PL money in the bank and owners who don't have much ambition to do.

Sorry. Harsh, but I think true.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.