I think this is the most likely scenario. As much as we hated it with Zaha, in business terms it was maybe worth a punt as no one really knows the state of a team's accounts. This isn't like previous windows where we have been desperate to fill positions. This time it is more a case of trying to find an upgrade.

Unless they've smuggled him to the ground in the boot of Parish's Bentley then I imagine that's it and cue post-5pm announcement that Butland has signed on a three-year deal for an undisclosed (but likely fairly low) fee. No comment on the Sarr bid(s).

that would be waaaaay too simple for Palace.
we love a dick about

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.

See you two hours before the next deadline

Edited by Canterbury Palace (16 Oct 2020 4.37pm)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Yeah I agree, I hear Lewandowski isn't available for £25m + 10% sell on fee, we could have not signed him.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Leaving it late was a very wise move.

I've no problem with £25m being the most we'll pay for a lad who looked good in patches in the Premier league, but hasn't yet done any more than that.

Once you've decided that's the most you'll pay then it doesn't really matter when you bid - it's either enough or its not, though if anything, bidding late makes more sense.

If we had bid £25m for him earlier in the window then Watford would have tried to use that as the starting point for an auction. I can see the logic in waiting until the last knockings, hoping to take advantage of the fact that nobody has given them the money they wanted for a player they might actually be desperate to sell to balance the books.