August 1 2010

George Burley

What looked like being a disastrous season turned out pretty well in the end. Long live the consortium, toasts Jamesey.

The pre-season friendlies are over although, apparently, a few morons at Brentford tried to degrade the meaning of the word "friendly".

The real business starts on Saturday (Aug 7) with a visit from Leicester City so what have we learned from performances so far?

Personally I have never been to so few pre-season games - I only attended the Chelsea home game although I usually get to at least three.

I would love to have gone to Brentford and Bromley but travelling home late in the evening on public transport just doesn't appeal any more, so that was that. A shame because I really enjoyed our trip to Bromley on a Saturday afternoon a couple of years ago, and Griffin Park is unknown territory to me.

The exit of many of our stalwarts during and after the season means that a new-look Palace will be running onto the pitch for the Foxes match.

Among the departed are Moses, Fonte, Butterfield, Lawrence, Derry, Hill, Ertl and John and, without in any way disparaging the valiant efforts of the squad in keeping us in the second division, at least five of the above-mentioned players are nearing the end of their careers.

Derry and Hill were devastatingly effective when Neil Warnock brought them in on loan to give some steel to our defence and midfield but their ages could see them struggling to be effective for the Hoops.

Although we only won one of the six games to date it really doesn't matter this year.

Manager George Burley ran his eye over what seemed like dozens of triallists and has signed a few promising players already. Hopefully from the melee of available talent, Mr Burley will be able to spot what he is looking for and build a new Palace side for 2010-11.

Many supporters seem to be rather cautious and would regard staying in the Championship League as a big achievement.

I think we can expect rather more than that. The play-offs would be over-optimistic after the traumas and disruption of administration and near-extinction.

But with a spine of Julian Speroni, Neil Danns and Darren Ambrose, and if George Burley can emulate some of his past managerial successes (Scotland excepted!), I can't see why we shouldn't be thinking of a top ten finish come May 2011.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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