S-Clarke

Palace are a different kettle of fish though in the sense of the quality they have at their disposal. A seriously stronger squad than us and at a smaller outlay, so our recruitment is once again winning the day - not. It wouldn't take a great deal to lift them away with the threats they have in the final third. I think we were a bit of a lost cause for whoever managed us this year, although quite amazingly Jones did manage to make an impossible situation even worse.

It'll be nice to see us win a game or two before we wave goodbye to this league, you'd hope this is one we have a a small chance in. I want to get to at least get to 30 points, so this is one we need to win. Palace will be dangerous on the break though, but as with Woy teams they will also be happy to sit in a low block and wait for the space. In all honesty one of the worst teams we can face, we don't have the creative intelligence to break down sitting teams and equally we don't have the pace to defend their powerful counters.

I don't think we can afford to waste a year 'consolidating', it's next year or bust for us I reckon. Need to put all effort into a top 2 finish for next year.

Carrick is an interesting shout, but I currently have very little confidence in anyone at this club to make the right call. This summer is our biggest ever, get this one as wrong as they did last year then some of us will never see PL football again.

Hate to break it to you, but Brighton are currently on a slightly different planet to us, soon to be different league as well. I doubt it'll last, but they are currently much, much better than us.

Not a Moi fan myself, but from an off the ball point of view he has his uses today, as he's a bit more disciplined than our other attackers. Not great mind you, as when we do get a random foray in their half we do need to have someone with the ability to create something!

How can you say that? I can see in front of me, black and white, 5 extra points from arguably a tougher set of fixtures (Utd away, Chelsea home, Spurs home etc). Luck comes into it, but it's not as straight forward as that - you make your own luck. Not sure how anyone can say there has been no improvement, crazy view.

These are the games we often look better in, mainly because they won't sit back and force us to play in front of them - there will be space to play in the final third, and because of that it will create the illusion that we look better than we actually are. (not that we'll do anything with that space, mind)

Surely the only stat that matters are the points on the board? That's the only comparison you can make to determine if x is better than y. Jones - 7 games - 3 points. (6 defeats out of 7) Selles - 7 games - 8 points. (3 defeats out of 7) Not ground breaking levels of improvement, but it's a bit misleading to say our stats are worse as the only ones that matter in my eyes are the points.

That's what worries me, from the outside when the worst happens you assume we should have enough about us to mount a decent effort as long as we get the calls right - certainly attractive to decent managers, but the decision making over the last 12 months has been inept and I haven't seen any suggestion that has changed yet.

I think that only kicks in from 2024 - might be wrong, but I'm sure I've read that (or is that when it expires??) But if it only kicks in from 2024 then they'd have to pay the going rate, which will be £50m plus imo.

The prob is we have no confidence in our attack either, we're just not very good period.

My fear is that they'll freeze it as well, but in my eyes we've been ripped off for years with these prices as it is. Life as a home supporter has been the equivalent of tossing money out of your window and getting nothing back. Given that we'd make millions from play sales and parachute payments, I hope they can knock the prices down - it wouldn't seem fair to have them kept the same in my eyes.

It is a strange one if they get rid of him, when teams make the call in April you have to ask why - they've stuck and showed support to the manager all season, he's worked with the group all season, you might as well let him see out the next 6 weeks. They're likely going to have a caretaker in place for 2/3 weeks anyway, so they're basically looking for a manager to 'bounce' them in a handful of games. It's the roll of a dice really, it's not like he's been a Jones for them - I think he's built a decent culture there, but people forget they're a bit of a rabble of individuals and that's where inconsistency comes into it. (so similar to Fulham a few years back)

This is the killer really, these are irrelevant if we keep dropping in the results we do against Leeds/Wolves/West Ham etc. It's the hope that kills so for my sanity I'm just accepting the fate now, it's definitely tight down there and from 12th - 18th there are 3 or so points in it, but we're absolutely rooted to the bottom and actually getting cut adrift in a season where it's so tight above us. Typical really.

Can't take Bernard tbh, as limited as Perraud is, he doesn't wander into the Chapel stand midway through the game on numerous occasions.

Don't temp them, I can see the merch being developed as we speak

It's certainly a bit of an odd season, the usuals have been pretty poor which has allowed the likes of Newcastle, Fulham, Brentford and Brighton to have a bit of fun. Not entirely sure it's just down to quality, as there is a lot of quality in this league, maybe it's just got a bit more competitive and other teams can punch harder now. (Newcastle for one, Villa don't hold back either). There are some decent squads down in the bottom half too and some decent money has been spent, we're the only team you can look at and say yeah we don't have enough. Every other side has something.

Remember, we do it on our terms and we will not be dictated to. Our way is the envy of all, that's why we're propping up the rest.

I'd take him next year in the Champ, it was always going to be hard for Forest with their scattergun approach. I think he's done well to make them somewhat competitive to be honest.

Elia, bar that Newcastle game he was pretty naff, but he'd still be better than Elyounoussi today. Shane Long - ok, fair to say he wasn't shockingly bad for us, but it shows up our recruitment that I'd rather have him than Adam Armstrong right now. Redmond - wasn't ever his biggest fan, but I'd give anything to have him starting in front of Ely or Armstrong right now. Again, shows up our shocking recruitment that we've managed to move on deadwood but actually made ourselves weaker in the process.

Peterborough have a knack of finding and then developing decent strikers, so I wouldn't be too against having a sniff around him. Mackail-Smith/McLean/Tony are 3 which stick out from recentish years.

In goalkeeper terms he is pretty small, and I've always thought he looks like a scared kid in between the posts. To be fair that's what he is really, inexperience is killing him on top of some key technical/physical limitations. Not a great recipe for a top flight keeper it has to be said.

I genuinely believe that Ralph would have got more out of our run after Christmas and into the new year, 6 or 7 points out of that lot and we'd be sat on 30 points. I think even Selles would have done better in that period than Jones did, so that's the period that killed us really. I think it had gone stale with Ralph, 100%, but in my eyes the decision to appoint Jones and give him an entire f**ing pre season is what killed our season dead, we'd have still been in the mix otherwise imo.

I'm kinda resigned to it now, so any results from tonight make little difference in my outlook really. Already prepared for the Championship in my head, should make it easier to take when the inventible happens in a few weeks.