Ric Flair

I think Cooper is very influential in our transfer targets this summer, I wish he wasn't.

Absolutely devastated. Genuine salt of the earth and one of the most influential people in the history of our football club. Privileged we felt his presence again in 2023, almost means more now that does. Rest in peace you lovely man

Decent shouts, think we're risking underestimating the required central midfielders needed though. It feels like we've lost loads.

And this is another problem with focusing on players with PL experience. They are either on big wages and/or cost a lot in transfer fees. There are occasions you can pick up a player trying to rebuild their career but we've found in the past it's terrible value for money and no more successful than recruiting from the lower leagues and abroad. If our answer is we go from Nelson to Ayew because we can't afford the £15m + £100k a week wages then again we're being so blinkered.

He's definitely one to watch, I thought he might need one more season at that level to assess his ability but you'd hope a good recruitment department could get below that to see. His record last season was above average but nothing special. Started the season with a brace though!

Our squad is considerably weaker than last season too. We'd be favourites to go down regardless of potential points deduction.

In which case sign players on modest wages under £10m with vast potential and use the loan market and free transfer market. Basically recruit like an ambitious Championship club.

Alves was starting in this as well, typical.

We've been through this. Olise got 1 less than him in over 50% less games and scored 6 more goals than him as well.

Neither

The devil's advocate being we had two players who played with Okazaki that scored and assisted more than 20 each a season. We could afford to carry him and he was a foil. Ayew would be a hard worker who if he played would at the expense of Fatawu or Mavididi, only 2 of a very select amount of players who can rack up goals and assists or instead of the other player with a comparable record to him in Bobby Reid. Don't need him, it's appalling business.

Hahaha Olise played just 19 games last season and still got only 1 less assist than him and scored 6 more than him too. 11 goal contributions for the season from out wide in a Palace team that had one of their best seasons in a long while might not be embarrassing but his PL record on the whole is appalling. He's not what we need, if we hadn't got Reid then you might have a point but that is negated.

Our sales for 22/23 were £110m and in 23/24 we'd added another £90m loss from the year before to the 3 year cycle (21/22 and 22/23 both being 90m + losses before PSR deductions and the 19/20 year of a much lesser loss dropped off)

Justin, Coady, Vestergaard, Ricardo, Winks, Ndidi, Reid, Vardy. I'd say that's a good amount, some have been the very best at this level too, albeit that's dropped off but still capable. Then there's a few more with mixed success with us in the PL such as Daka, Hamza etc. Ayew doesn't improve that list at all. His record in the Prem is an absolute embarrassment for a winger or striker.

Afraid so, the Cooper appointment is looking odder by the day. Really poor fit for us and long term could be very damaging.

When has signing players with vast PL experience been a success for us in the last 4-5 years? More often than not it's been a failure. We are not a newly promoted PL side like we were 10 years ago either, we boast a good nucleus of players that have multiple years experience in the PL with us. So quite frankly this is a moot point IMO.

This is what I'm struggling to compute. If we think we were only £40m shy (before Maresca and KDH departing) for 23/24 compliance after the losses in both 21/22 and 22/23 being huge, then I can't see how the 3 year period up to the end of 22/23 is as vast as some are making out if we could comply for 23/24 if that makes sense?

He's parted ways unfortunately. I still menace him on WhatsApp though so he's not truly free of me.

Still think it's unecessary even in the unlikely event of us selling Ward and Iversen. Any short term backup keeper whilst Stolarczyk is out should be a loan or free transfer on a years deal max.

He was very highly regarded after his 2022/23 season at Montpellier alongside Mavididi. I wasn't aware of the baggage that surrounds him until today. It's a huge concern isn't it. I'd much rather look at Adam Hlozek.

They aren't even signings to prepare for the Championship, I wish they were which would be young players with vast potential on modest wages.

This is just what we need, a 5th goalkeeper.

Wages will be high as well and we don't have a growing nucleus of young players being recruited who give us a safety net to raise serious transfer fees if and when we need it. I genuinely would rather be in the Championship trying to build something than fighting to stay up making extremely short term decisions that leave you no better off if you do somehow stay up for a year. I'm probably in the minority as I don't have a huge appetite for the PL in general, it's boring.

It's appalling business if we go for it. We've signed Bobby Reid to do that. Less assists but more goals from the same position. Either way, if both are to make telling contributions then that's less game time for Mavididi and dare I say Fatawu which is just bizarre.

The irony is he's supposed to be an advocate of young players but scratch the surface and he really isn't. He just so happened to manage some academies and England youth teams. Since Swansea he's favoured experience except for the odd player.