The Kraken

I’m getting more worried that won’t actually happen.

Wouldn’t mind them going down, their fans are like zoo animals flinging shit at each other.

Yeah it’s no use him saying that when he’s got three outfield players that he signed for this season sat on the bench. If Tino wasn’t injured it would probably be four (Perraud, Lyanco, Broja, Armstrong) which would be what, nearly £40m of summer expenditure on the bench?

I doubt we can afford to pay him off.

Not sure. Seems a bit strange though as Pukki and AA seem quite similar.

Would the club just cut its losses on AA? It was a big outlay to get him, he’s done almost nothing while here, I can’t see a Championship side being able/willing to shell out on a big fee and big salary.

In any case it seems I’m wrong as media says his contract is up in 2024.

If you were a player and you knew Ralph was off in a year, would you commit to signing for that team if you don’t know what the long term strategy is?

It’s just such a crazy decision. I could maybe understand it if we were away, or playing a top side. Keep it tight etc. but it’s Palace at home, we were above them. Stupid decision and I can only think Long is in Ralph’s plans for next season, which would be barmy.

This is a major concern for me, both in terms of attracting players and then motivating them.

Rubbish from Saints. We’ve got Brentford (A), Liverpool (H) and Leicester (A) to finish the season. Can’t see any points from the last two tbf and Brentford won’t be easy.

5 points.

To be fair he’s been injured for most of that.

It seems likely, Adam Armstrong is clearly well down the pecking order.

Is Forster injured?

I think you may be biased given your username….. 😉 But yes, he was good that season, especially so as he was at centre back.

Looks like the one on the left is definitely having her share of the spoils.

Disagree. They can offer players the possibility of competing, certainly more than Saints can. Granted, they’re not likely to win the title again soon. But they’re now a side who genuinely aim for a European finish and lower mid table is seen as failure. That’s a significant step up. It may be only a short term thing, we’ll see, but it’s a fair assessment of now.

They’re also ahead of us on stadium size and potential numbers through the door. They’ve had a season ticket waitlist for some time and have plans afoot to increase their stadium size to 40k. We are similar to Leicester in that our stadiums currently look much the same. Aside from that, right now they are clearly a step up.

Indeed. It’s a guaranteed way to success. Years ago an unwise old man always used to talk about Alex Ferguson and say that “it’s an easy job and anyone can do it, all he’s got to do is spend money”.

I’ve heard the ‘fraud’ accusation quite a lot, it’s quite common. Don’t get it myself.

You’d certainly be mad to say he’s done anything other than a great job of turning them round. I don’t think he’ll stay at Newcastle in the medium to long term but their form of late has been excellent.

🤣 not sure what’s worse, MLT losing his mind or this goon following him around and reporting back on his every tweet. It’s all a bit sad really, we all know MLT has gone mad so that should be a good cue to just shut him off.

Yeah I edited my post, I missed Valery out. Though I consider him a liability so I think I’d be worried if we’re to be a starting choice for us. I don’t see much money being spent in this area, it would be daft unless Tino’s injury is extremely lengthy. But a bit of a worry.

We need a backup though. If KWP were injured or suspended I’m not sure who our replacement RB is. I’d guess either Valery or Jack Stephens, or move JWP there, so not ideal. At LB it’s similar, Thierry Small is the only other genuine left back in the squad, and he hasn’t played a single minute of senior league football with us, but I doubt Small gets the nod so we could end up with something like Valery or even Salisu there.