Good survey that. You'd better give Mr Freedman his filofax back now

Interesting the idea of bringing players back from China. I always assumed that these were players who wanted to put their feet up and get paid megabucks for doing SFA.

Edited by chateauferret (10 Dec 2017 6.46pm)

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The Ferret
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We need a goal poacher, someone who just feeds on scraps in the box but scores more often than not.

The amount of great chances we have missed this season is unbelievable

id like to see Leigh Griffiths from Celtic at Palace, he would have a hat full of goals for us this season.

I agree its unlikely given that interview, but does Wenger care so little for his players that he would rather keep them as bench men than allow them to perhaps follow their last chance of a world cup place. It's not like Wenger is short of options. He may not be unsympathetic to a move, as indeed when questioned about Wilshere he said he would need to discuss his future with him which in my mind means he is open to discussion about his players futures.

Who knows what January will throw up but as you say, this one is probably unlikely.

Thanks matteo will download to tablet and read over Christmas as off for a few days.Have you been nominated for a Booker prize ?

I agree with you in part, but a couple of points, firstly Giroud. There is only one reason he would want to come to Palace and that is to have game time and score goals to convince the powers that be that he should play in the world cup. So I think being in a relegation battle is irrelevent to his decision. He is a quality striker and would no doubt love to play around Wilf, Andros and RLC and I am sure that given the half chances Benteke has been presented with this season he would have buried a fair percentage of them.

Secondly Matteo's list is good but not exhaustive and surely, the secret to signing good players at reasonable money is having an eye for those who will fit into our system of play regardless of who they play for and how they are currently playing. Just because a player is playing poorly for one team doesn't mean he won't fit into another and of course vice versa. We agree that pound for pound Milivojevic has been our best signing by a mile and there is no reason why a decent scout cannot find more of these gems playing around the euro leagues. Dougie has hopefully been employed because he has a decent eye in this area. I would hope so anyway because otherwise his appointment appears unnecessary.

There have been grumbles on this forum as to why we have struggled to put together a squad rather than just a first 11. In my opinion it is because our scouting network is so poor we have been unable to unearth the Lukas of this world and have had to go for marquee signings which initially looks great on paper but means you are paying top dollar. Zaha, Cabaye, Benteke, Sakho, Townsend, PVA, Schlupp are all good players, but the seecret to building a squad is in finding players of their ability at half the price. We are simply not rich enough to buy our way into the top half of the league so need to buy clever. Our scouting network and our negotiators are the most important part of the club in the absence of an Oligarch. If we manage to unearth the next Vardy or Kane or pick up players like Richarlison who is clearly playing way above his initial valuation then we can be successful without having to buy more Bentekes and Sakhos at £30m a pop.

Agreed, it is difficult, but by no means impossible.