On the contrary, I'm not dreading this window at all. Last two windows, we were dealing from a position of weakness; likely relegation candidates, newly promoted team, everything uncertain. We'll go into this window secure in the Premiership, a London team (with all the attractions of playing in the capital), possibly led by manager of the year, widely recognised as having the best supporters in the country, on the up generally, and with at least one Champions League player (Ledley) having already signed up.

The last two windows we were the poor man trying to persuade our betters to take a shot on Palace. While we may never be Big Five, this time around we have a very persuasive pitch for targets we are interested in and you may well find we're suddenly the choosers and not the beggars. Twelve months ago any mid-table team (Stoke, WBA, Norwich, Fulham, even Southampton) were better options than Palace. Not so sure that will be true come three weeks time.