S-Clarke

Apparently not anything too serious like that, out for the season for sure, but back for pre-season is the current verdict... Palace chairman forthright and open about him being their number 1 bit of business they want to/need to get over the line, but seemed to be suggesting Liverpool wanted silly money to create a bidding war.

Can someone tell me when this season starts? I'm still waiting.

Bilge. I had more fun on the way home in the car. People keep talking about 9th, but one bad week of results and we could plummet to 15/16th. Awesome.

Looks like a case of outscoring the oppo today. Balls on the line.

The club are very often guarded about the length/type of long term injury a player has. Probably just a case of trying to brush bad news under the carpet..! I still don't think anyone really knows what happened to VVD? Ankle, Foot, toe..?

Nope.

If it's better than this City - Utd bilge fest, then we'll be fine.

It was a bit of a sideways step at the time, but I think he probably knew he'd taken us as far as he could...so he sort of jumped before the season unraveled. At the start of the season I'd have taken Barkley, Lukaku, McCarthy and Coleman for sure. They do/did have some dross like Barry, Oviedo, Robles etc though. As of now, I'd have Williams in our CB now we don't have either VVD or Fonte.

He's a good player, very strong and powerful but also good with the ball at his feet. Pretty sure he's on the radar of a lot of clubs, if we were interested we'd be a decent move for him for sure. There's still a few issues to iron out with him, but he has all the tools for sure. I think Alfie Mawson is also a very good up and coming English CB, but a little more raw round the edges. I think I read that Maguire is out of contract next season, so whether Hull stay up or not, he's not going to cost the earth. We'll clearly be in for a first choice CB this summer, so it'll be interesting to see which names come out of the woodwork. Maybe they can resurrect the file of Davide Astori.

I think with Everton, they have seriously under achieved in previous years. Not entirely sure what Martinez did with the defense in training. Koeman has taken on what was a decent squad with the likes of Lukaku, Barkley, Marallis, McCarthy, Baines etc and added a few little tweaks here and there. He's sorted out their defense for a start, so if he was able to do that they would have a better season. So he's done OK I'd say, not amazing, but he's at least got them performing to a more acceptable level and gives them grounds to build on for coming seasons. Puel was in a totally different situation, we were always going to end up dropping a little this season and it seems as if Puel has taken the brunt of this. But in the same way as Everton had been underachieving, i think it's fair to say we really did overachieve in the last couple of seasons. Coupled with the insane amount of games and bunched up months we've had to contend with this year, and the fact that the entire first choice CB partnership has been ripped out, then to be finishing anywhere near we did last year is still a really good effort. I'll stand by what I said - 47-52 points as an end of season tally will be good and will likely see us finish Top half, which is a fair reflection of our current crop.

Probably too early to tell for sure, but it did look like quite a serious knee injury for Sakho tonight at Palace....

There won't be any high level points deductions, maybe a few slapped wrists and some fines banded about.

I don't think the scouse have ever been too taken in by him, steady but nothing spectacular is generally what I've heard. His attacking play and final ball is somewhat frustrating in the games I've seen him play for them, but for 11-12m he's a pretty sound buy.

Has Stephens been bad? I honestly can't remember him having too many issues, he's adapted surprisingly well in my eyes. I think Yoshida is still more prone to a lapse than Stephens. Still, we shouldn't have been in this situation, but we might as well get the benefit of blooding a youngster out of a bad situation.

On a different note - slightly - Barton has been banned from Football for 18 months for betting irregularity or something. Can we get the points back from the Burnley away game in that case....! http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11708/10851609/burnleys-joey-barton-banned-for-18-months-by-football-association-over-betting-rule-breaches

Can see why those two clubs are involved in that case. Payet being the standout for WHU....but then newcastle went big with Cabella, Thauvin - Marseille involved in all those.

Maybe Austin can offer that sort of alternative, but I'm not 100% sure yet - need to see more of him in the side for sure. For me, Davis should be upgraded by someone such as Sigarrdson...but we all know that's a pipe dream!

If Tadic goes, then yeah we'll need a number 10 type. But if he stays, then I don't see any reason.

And Redmond, and VVD...etc etc.

Davis is better in the role just in front of two sitting midfielders in my opinion. The role which allows him to drive forward with the ball and open the play up, he's not as effective in a CM role and comes up short in the physical bits.

I can see what you mean with regards to Gabbiadini in terms of his close control, he doesn't seem to win enough in the air to be a focal point type though. I'm not saying replace him as a starting player, but just someone else with a bit more height and strength to give us another option up top. Gabbiadini has also played from the flanks at his previous club, so there is flexibility in the way we can use him if we want. I think it's sensible to have a mix it up option, not saying that needs to be our main style, but just other alternatives if the passing game doesn't work. It's not necessarily bad football if it's executed right and not just a case of lumping it up, but if you think back to when we had Lambo in the team - and then Pele - a fair few of our goals came from the fact players used to get in and around him when he knocked the ball down, or headed it on. Just gave us a chance to get points and wins in games where we haven't really done enough football wise.

Hopefully they've arrested Sullivan's son for crimes on twitter.

That's true, you cannot ignore that. All of the 'natural' Top 6 have improved either with players, management etc. Ourselves, Leicester, West Ham etc shook them up last year, and in the end Leicester winning the league didn't level the playing field, it just forced the big clubs to wake the hell up - hence that they're all performing better. Arsenal haven't even been hugely different from previous years, but they're actually quite a bit adrift of the top 4, which says a lot. Also, everton are now performing as you'd expect them to after underachieving for a couple of seasons, so the long and short of it - if we can finish 8th this year on 50 odd points, then we can be pleased with the work we've done in my opinion. Gives us a decent platform to build on and we can see where we go next year.

Lack of leadership through the spine pretty much. We also lack the power and pace which made us a threat in seasons gone past. We have a good side, good technical players, good quality, good opportunities and possibilities (etc. etc..!) Any team will miss VVD. The club also know they dropped a bollock not replacing Fonte, so that's two leaders gone. Pelle was also more of a miss than many assumed he would be, not only did he hold the line better than anyone else we now have - but he was also a presence and a bit of a personality. We've got a team full of nice guys at the moment, we just need some strong bastards at the back, someone to help Romeu and maybe a Pelle type focal point up top. We're not miles away from it, we don't need a huge overhaul or enormous surgery as some suggest. I'm sure the club are aware and we'll see what happens in the summer, which by all accounts will be a huge summer for us. Ideally, this summer needs to be about evolving our squad - not worrying how we're going to be replacing our current players.

What do you actually want to be honest? You didn't rate Koeman either. I'm not sure what you expect, you seem a little confused with your expectations.