This is well worth a read.

[Link]

The key takeaways are: being focused on a specific achievable target; canny and consistent recruitment policy (which means bringing in players who are out of favour or out of form, who fit a playing system) then selling them on; and realistic expectations.

I thought the comments about player recruitment were particularly noteworthy, given the extreme criticism of any indication that Palace might look to recruit players who play for a poor team or who, themselves, are out of form.

From where did we get Bolasie, Ward, Delaney, and why? For all those decrying our recruitment, we have brought in some absolute bargains despite some errors.

Edited by NickinOX (25 May 2016 2.19pm)

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Given how much people spend on strikers, and the rumoured £25m bid for Deeney from Leicester, I'd argue that Wickham is a bargain given the way he's played when fit, and when you consider he's still only 23.

Employee of the month is a good example of how someone can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.

I did some work with Harvard Business School on 'star' performers and what happens when you poach them.

In the business world, if you buy a star from a lesser branded/performing organisation they tend to really up their game, their performance improves dramatically as they have the benefit of the better infrastructure and colleagues.

Poaching employees from an equivalent branded organisation almost always resulted in a loss of value, they lost their mojo as they were broken away from the systems they were used to which fed them.

It's quite possible football is like that. You may have more success bringing in a total star from one step beneath you than investing mega bucks in parallel movers.