Saint-Fred

I am pretty certain we aren't breaking our transfer record for a defender. This other guy seems an option..bang on matches our previous MO. again the club are seemingly filling the right holes in the squad (as they did I the summer with a defensive midfielder and in January with a striker for example) whether they are of good enough quality to improve us, is yet to be seen.

They are miles out of it... There is no way us, West Brom or Swansea will get within 6 points of them by the end of the season let alone get in front of them.

TBH I am not that bother about premier league anymore either.. If we do well we get stripped of players anyway so there's not much future for us there. Being a middling championship club wouldn't be so bad...we might actually get a team of players that stick with us for a while, the football isn't going to be much worse than we have seen the last two seasons, different grounds to visit again, we wouldn't have to put up with the Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool fans who spend hundreds of millions then go mental like they have won a cup when they win against us despite the fact we are in a totally different league financially to them... I don't enjoy this buy potential, sell them to Liverpool at a profit model at all. As was said above its about supporting the team, not about success or the league we are n, and I think, actually, I might enjoy us beng a consistent mid table championship club more.

I think that's unfair , the OP is posting how most people feel... He isn't saying that he hates he club, that he only wants success etc etc he is just saying it feels pretty ****e and I agree with him it isn't much fun. Just because we are supporters it doesn't mean we can't feel bad does it?

I don't think it's going to get much better for the rest of the year...never mind we have the World Cup to look forward to ( England might actually win it! Lol) Next season will be interesting... Not that many teams bounce straight back and those that do can score goals. I reckon we might be fighting in the bottom half next season too!

Ultimately I don't know if he will get sacked but this ITK stuff about having a week etc is hard to believe. It might happen that he gets sacked if we lose but I can't believe the board have decided to sack him, are telling people so it's getting out there via ITKs yet would leave him in post. I assume at present his position is precarious but at present there is no plan to sack him..it might be an option being considered but whilst he remains in charge there is no way the decision has been made. It's quite a worry as you have to think if his record so far isn't bad enough to make a decision, will it ever be?

Funny enough the media proclaimed "fantastic" palace fans were pretty quiet whilst they were behind. It's what happens when things are poor. Unfortunately for us it's pretty poor most of the time and everyone watching is pretty certain, even when we are in front that it's going to change any minute. Producing an atmosphere would be great but it's 50/50 IMO. The players need to do their bit too. We have also lost most of our songs as everyone with a song pretty much leaves...and when was the last time we sang a managers name? RK probably. It's going to take a really big personality to change anything quickly I am afraid.

Lol if this is true it's laughable...and people moaned about Cortese rumoured to be picking out signings...now we have a Chinese businessman deciding who we buy. lets hope he fancies Ronaldo in his fantasy team.. Only add another 20 million to the double VD money and he's ours! Or if he wants to get money back into China we could get Oscar, Tevez and Pelle? Perhaps he will sack MP and give his son the job like that Cardiff nutty owner?

We tried to stop selling our best player but that didn't work out too well did it? I think the issue may be that we may have sold the dream of joining a stepping stone club, so stopping them leaving is quite emotional territory. Also we had some really good players, who were better than us in reality so would always leave. We tried paying them more, we tried longer contracts but it changed nothing. i think the managerial appointment is an issue, but otherwise I do believe Les and Co have been trying, in the best way they knew to keep us moving in the right direction. I am sure they are not sat at home right now without a care in the world. I am sure They are really worried about going down...especially as they were probably involved in selling the dream to Mr Gao!

Ahh OK someone else pointed this out too... I still can't see that he needs to panic, with no emotional commitment it's just business and the assets of the club (including the guaranteed parachute payments) probably means he can get enough to cover his debt comfortably. Just needs to cut back on the wage bill a bit (luckily we just cut that by 3 million a year plus Whatever we paid Mr Black and then covered his job with someone we already were paying) and get some money in the bank. (Luckily Liverpool just made a donation lol) I think the plan was to use the double VD money on the squad and the premier league money for running cost, servicing the loan and whatever he wanted as a dividend but he may have changed his mind now, if it is perceived we might be better off waiting until the summer to see which league we are in before buying?

Not just that ...players will be waiting to view their options. It is the likely reason that we buy late IMO. Why wouldn't you, if a few clubs were interested, play them off against each other and get the best deal you can before committing? Anyone committing to Saints before the window opened would either be getting a great deal of money more than they were on (eg three times your 60k salary in double VD's case) or know you are not be good enough to find another club.

Lol I was just thinking he same...I am not sure suddenly changing tact and signing random more "experienced" players is the answer. It hasn't worked for West Brom who, on paper, signed some "experience" in the summer. It could be argued Stoke have done the same... Apparently we have targets so we just need to trust in the recruitment we have shown can be done in the past. For me it's that something has to happen to get our lot to actually finish teams off...I think I read Palace have picked up more points from losing positions than anyone... It feels like we are the opposite and throw away points from winningdrawing positions on a regular basis? Not sure if that's reality though.

OK fair enough...but does it mean our owner then has a 200 million pound debt to service and I assume that the money to service that is expected to come from the club then? He must be expecting some sort of bang for his Buck?

We have a 200 million pound debt to service that we didn't have a year ago.

I thought asset stripping in the way described are illegal? Surely the debt is not his anyway it is secured against the club so it goes pop that 75m, the next premier league cheque, the future parachute payments and the sale of the rest of the squad will service the debt for quite some period.

Lol I got 28-1 too... Never bet against us before but it just seemed pretty generous given the way we finished the league last season and the gamble of MP.

Terrible conditions which obviously favoured the team playing away from the Chapel. Both teams were poor with passes going astray all over the place. Even when on top in the first half we were passing almost as often to a Palace player as our own. The players being down on their haunches at the end pretty much signals to me that the fight has gone. With only Brighton, Bournemouth and Stoke to play at Home where we should get points I think we may as well start planning for the next level...

I would absolutely love him back but with other clubs interested I just can't see we would compete with them? That doesn't seem to be our way. Ironically, I could see Ballotelli being more realistic, as he is similar to the Austin situation, in that he is nearing the end of his contract, we could negotiate a pre contract now (couldn't we?) for a summer transfer so if there isn't much interest from other clubs we could (if we wanted) be in a strong position.

I think the purse may well be open, I don't think that's in question. I agree on the profile of the signings though...I can't see us suddenly going down the West Ham route of signings. Les has a method which has worked in the past, I think we'd only sign players like Walcott if the black box has come up totally empty. However the comment very early on from one ITK , about maybe signing players if they are available and maybe having to wait until summer to get them, suggests we have longer term targets. January is notoriously difficult to get transfers done so we might get one maybe two at most? I can't see a massive spending spree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42527428 BBC carrying the story too... Its interesting that we chose to announce the story before the window opens (therefore making the photo of double V D with a Loverpool shirt whilst still under contract to us ok) whilst other alleged deals are not announced as yet?

We do need a captain but at present I can't think of a player who is certain to start the next game let alone every game. I like PEH, he is committed in every game he plays. However It wasn't so long ago that fans were cheering ironically (that probably says more about our own fans than him TBH) when he made a pass to our own player...perhaps we should let him become a regular before we think about promotion! Lol Redmond might be closest to being captain as he nearly always plays!

Lol do you think anyone actually thinks we are signing him, or any other of the names mentioned? When was the last time we signed a "household" name? People are just enjoying the speculation until we actually announce someone who is a squad player somewhere else who has potential to be much better (Lemina, Gabbi etc). Kat didn't decide transfer policy and The new owner , as far as I am aware, isn't taking an active role, especially in recruitment of players so the the policy won't have changed over night!

Man City couldn't get Evans what hope have we got?

It's amazing really how, since Leicester upset the apple cart, the natural ordered has been restored through hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds investment in those big clubs (still not enough according to Jose). That season where the big clubs struggled has triggered inflation resulting today in £75 million being spent on a defender! Meanwhile the rest of the league have become ****e, scrabbling around trying to concede as few as possible, and just bit parts in the overall product, which is those 6 teams.

Does it really matter? Our place in the pecking order is we are a feeder club. We sell our best players and managers. Despite anything spouted by the club we won't ever break into the top 6. The bookies don't think we are going down ( we are still around 9 to 1) and the club believe the same. MP may be at risk of losing his job but only because he is not show casing players well enough to get top dollar for them and the business plan sold to Mr Gao is in jeopardy. Oh and what happened to keep it quiet so no one knew we had any cash? Lol