cityfanlee23

Wait, so we can't just cancel the loan? We've paid a "significant" fee, and have no right to cancel the loan? Presumably because we are covering wages and Palace would then end up with those wages on their books?

It’s a shame we treated him so poorly for 18 months under Brendan, but Cags was one of our best players when Dean Smith came in and recalled him, I don’t think we would have gone down if he played all season. I doubt he would want to leave Fenerbahce for a relegation scrap now though. Just the sort of player we need right now and if we were a bit safer in the table would likely only cost £12-15m, 28 years old.

Not the way we are playing atleast. Throw Vardy into a squad that gets balls into the box quickly and he can probably get 12+ goals for us. But right now he's feeding on scrap and sadly doesn't have the legs to grab the ball and make something happen, nowadays when he drops back and gets the ball, it seems to slow play down, sad to see.

I really hope so, if we can replace the back 4 we have a chance, but I'm just hoping our lack of attacking freedom is because of our defensive frailties. Ultimately everyone needs to improve 10%

It's obvious we need to strengthen, but we won't be signing the 6-7 first team players who will change our fortunes in January, we will be lucky to get 3 permanent signings and a loan deal whilst sending back Edouard IMO. Ultimately, Ruud is going to have to improve what we have as well as signing a few players. There is no point signing 3-4 quality signings on premier league wages if players are getting worse. A couple of players have improved, most have been just as bad if not worse.

Our CB's have big problems right now, but I'm reminded of Rio Ferdinand talking about the importance of being able to trust your full back.

Whoever we sign needs to be largely risk free, players like Mbemba are perfect, they offer immediate experience, lower wages, and would dominate the championship. I seriously don't think at this stage giving Ruud 100m will guarantee us safety, and if we spend £50m on a couple of big signings and we go down, we are back to financial struggles. Unfortunately unless Glover has some of the best transfer business in a decade like finding the new Mahrez, Vardy and Kante, we probably shouldn't be splashing the cash on Ruud.

Players are awful, he's not convincing me he can fix the basics, he needs reinforcements but there have been very few signs IMO. Can't see the defence not even slightly improving under someone like Moyes, he would have likely shored us up a bit. We look as clumsy as ever, in fact at times even more clumsy and yet the attack is still spineless. There have been a few moments where we look like we are trying to make a system work, but honestly, overall we are not really any better than under Cooper. Signings won't save us unless we are going to spend 150m on 7 positions. At some point Ruud has to improve what we already have.

The sad thing is, I genuinely think Moyes would have got us defending better than this. And the attacking I don't think would have got worse, how could it? This club is making me miserable. It's getting time for a break I think, they aren't worth the time.

So frustrating, they were there for the taking today, and once again we just lack any proper bite. We NEED signings YESTERDAY.

Djed spence.

Jobe bellingham now on the radar of some top clubs, should have gone for him last season when we could have got him for about 10m

I think I saw in the summer Truffert was being touted for less than 15m to the premier league, If we could get him for under £18m it might be worth having a try, he's only 23, his wages are modest (rumoured to be as low as 25k a week in ligue 1) so you could possibly entice him for £40k a week. I would say though of the 4 defenders positions LB is the least of my concerns though, CB and RB are an absolute must, fix them first or we are relegated with a whimper

Zalewski is probably worth looking at, can play LB and LM, I'd wager he could play LW too. Struggling for game time with only 500 minutes played in 10 appearances. Sign him in Jan for probably 5m, worth the punt. Welcome Max Gradel.

Yeah I think Chelsea have proven their ability to hoard players. I wonder whether we need to find some other way to balance it, only 2 loans is too restrictive, 5 would be a good position, then you'd maybe have to either cap the number of youth players a team can sign to stop them scooping up half the market. It just feels like 2 is too restrictive to me, we could have given a massive opportunity to multiple young players in the big 6 academy's this season, so could Ipswich/Wolves/Southampton, in the end none of us will.

The last couple of seasons his injuries have definitely crept up, hard to tell if it's because he's struggling for regular match time or if his body is going. Overall he's missed 45 games in 7 seasons, with 29 of them coming in the last 2 years. The groin and hamstring injuries would concern me, Toe injury is hard to tell because it's often a knock which can happen to anyone rather than a tear for example. You raise a good point. He's been in and out of the team for some time now without regular stints (he's made about 15 full 90 minutes per season over the last couple of years). I'd have to leave that to the scouts/physios to properly investigate really. Could very well be an issue though.

It's probably a stretch, but he's out of contract and had some frustrations there, he's dutch so had the connection, but i'd imagine if he leaves Ajax it could be to a bigger club than us, we have to be in the mix though because you never know what you can pull off with in the premier league.

For potentially £10m we could get Devyn Rensch and Chancel Mbemba on perms, with Lindelof on loan with an option to sign if we stay up and like him. 3 players that massively improve what we currently have, Rensch and Mbemba on cheap wages, Lindelof could potentially have some wages paid by United, 2 of them would absolutely dominate the championship if we went down. These are the sort of deals we need, unfortunately. Personally I think Mbemba improves our chances of staying up far more than playing Faes/Coady.

Way too many people writing him off without actually seeing him for Porto/Marseille, I mean, even when he was at Newcastle he was the best CB they had when they went down, statistically, he was better than Wes Morgan in most of the key defensive stats (I know stats can be skewed) For 3m he's a cheap punt, and even if he struggles, he is MILES better than the Championship.

Of course but did Coady and Vestergaard play in the champions league? Mbemba was playing well before coming back from international duty and being dropped over the fallout, Mbemba when he was in the prem was statistically a very solid defender, which is why he went to Porto and then onto Marseille. Vesty and Coady went from Southampton to a declining Leicester, and Wolves to a collapsing Everton and then a relegated Leicester. I get your point on premier league experience not being a great reason to sign players, but having experience of how fast and strong this league is, is always a benefit. The main issue with us at the moment, is we simply cannot afford to spend £80m on defenders only to be relegated with a whimper and be stuck with them, players like Mbemba are cheap, have experience, have been playing well over the last few seasons, and most importantly, will likely stick with us and are good enough to dominate the doom league should we go down.

I don't understand why loans are restricted to just 2, right now we are a perfect example of a club that would be able to play at least 5 loan players consistently in the premier league. Why is it so restrictive?

Lindelof on loan would be my #1 target. Contract up in summer, easily a top half prem defender, bags of experience, needs to put himself in the window if he is to get a decent club in summer. (Edouard out)

Very cheap, low wages (until rudkin gets his hands on the contract negotiations that it) prem and champions league experience, was really solid for Marseille until they had the fallout. Agree it's not an inspiring signing, but for £3m he's far better than Vesty/Coady/Faes, and he would dominate the championship IMO. This is the sort of signing we need if we have a chance of staying up, finding players with good experience, with a few years left in them for £3m can't be sniffed at.

Run, run as far and fast away as possible, the club is in big trouble

Would it be worth looking at Chilwell to take up the loan slot left by cancelling Edouard?