Very harsh to judge these players when they come on with 20 minutes left against the best team in the league. Plus if we do establish ourselves as a mid-table side we are still going to lose matches like this. I think we should look to consolidate next season and then consider how far we can move on after that. We have already progressed enormously since we scraped our way into the playoffs last season. I would really enjoy a season free of relegation worries and hoping for a place in the top ten. But after that, who knows?

The right place at the right time

I would be shocked, genuinely, if Gayle is here next season. I thought yesterday's cameo was probably a bit of shop-window time for potentially interested Championship clubs to have a look at home once the City game was lost as much as anything else.

He's class? Not even close, on the evidence of this season. No way. You'd have to be a fantasist to make that leap of faith because there is almost zero physical evidence to support it.

He's young? No, he isn't. He's not old, but he's no "kid".

He's inexperienced in top flight? Yes, he is, especially for a 25 year old. But that's because he hasn't been good enough to get that experience, particularly this season.

Pulis has had to do the best with what he's got? Indeed he has. And Gayle has been what he's had all season, yet even in instances where we needed a goal more than a "chaser" like Jerome, he's barely played. He's been last-off-the-bench for months now. Even after his one golden moment (at Villa), Pulis put him right back nowhere, which made a pretty clear statement to me (given how managers usually ride form players for as long as they can.) I think Pulis' opinion of him is written pretty large, on the evidence.

I'm not going to bang on...I said my piece on Gayle earlier in the year and promised to lay off thereafter. But this kid is nowhere close to good enough and if we can recoup even a small percentage of what we paid for him, I really would be gobsmacked if he's here when pre-season training opens. Of course, I may be totally and utterly wrong, but that's how I see it. Arguably a worthwhile gamble but it didn't pay off and now time to move on quickly.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

You ask "what am I on?", yet you fail to refute the substance of a single point I've made. It's difficult to argue back if you're going to tell me I'm crazy but not point out where you fault my logic.

With that said, you ask a question: "How can he show what he can do when he doesn't get to play???" Surely it's rhetorical? He doesn't get to play (and therefore show what he can do) because the manager -- who has vast experience in the Premiership, a league from which he's never been relegated -- doesn't think he's good enough.

Of course you're right; he has not been given much game time. But if TP thought he had much to show and could actually change a game, don't you think he would have been picked? The fact that someone has not spent time on the pitch is not a good argument for saying they'd have made an impact if they had played more. In fact, the reverse is true; he's not been given an opportunity to show what he can do because the manager thinks we have a lot of other players who can do more with the available playing time. I might not trust your judgment or even my own, but I do trust TPs.

You think he can come good (at this level). I don't. Fair enough either way but there is at least as much, if not more evidence to suggest that I am right (not least TP appearing to be on my side). But no matter what, the money spent wasn't "wasted' per se. Those are the risks that newly promoted sides have to take on marginal players. Some pay off, some don't. That's life.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.

It was stupid to have paid 6 million for him and why IH was allowed to pay that much I don't know?

You are crazy and I have made my point because how can a player get to grips with the PL if he's not being played that much?

Explain how Gayle can become a better player if he's sitting on the bench?

I do trust TP and never said I didn't, but certain fan's having a go at Gayle is harsh, just like with Moxey.

There has been times where we have needed a player like Gayle with pace in games.

Face facts. His signing was an awful bit of business. He was never ready for the premiership. If he'd been our first choice striker all season, with his lack of presence, strength, work rate and movement, we'd have been relegated. Fast and a tidy finisher, but that is not enough in the modern game.

Holloway was mugged. I suspect, being a sentimentalist, he got carried away with the notion of non league lad plucked from obscurity to make it at top. Contact clauses based on England appearances : the Posh chairman is a clever f***er, I'll give him that!

"How can I remember to keep it all together when half the moon is taken away?"

It should also be noted he's on around 20k per week. Are people really suggesting that's a good return on investment? He should be moved on to a half decent championship side ASAP for all concerned.

"How can I remember to keep it all together when half the moon is taken away?"