There’s a saying in football that you have to improve just to stand still and that seems to be the case in the Premier League at least.
Can anyone seriously make a case that we are stronger than last year?
We’ve lost the outstanding AWB , have real fitness concerns around Tomkins and Sako, have the same misfiring strikers , have ongoing uncertainty around Zaha’s future and Hodgson himself has indicated he does not seem to be on the same page as Freedman and Parish on transfers.
Yes there is another week until the window closes and we know Palace’s propensity for last minute deals but I’ll be amazed if we address all the squad issues in the remaining days.
Even Sheffield United and Villa are bolstering their squads with some imagination and are not looking for last minute deals.

We now have Guaita, Sakho, Meyer, and Kouyate, all good additions. RLC is a huge miss though - we are so, so thin on attacking players.

Mocked on TalkSPORT , Spurs for last minute signings....we are even worse !!
How the hell are Bournemouth getting away with spending all this money on 11000 gates ???
And how can they find players for the future and an established Premier club like us cannot......something is missing somewhere...and it cannot be just the problem of funds !!!

Bournemouth have a Russian oligarch owner prepared to spend his own money the club will never make back and pay the £7 mil FFP fines. All this ‘plucky little Bournemouth’ story is bullsh1t and hence doesn’t get the same accolades as the original Wimbledon FC did by doing it with their own money from nothing.

COYP

We will make some signings. Just very late so there’ll be a delay in them playing, and probably not enough of them. I expect they’ll be able to perform to at least a below average in the team like Meyer and kouyate rather than Sorloth, (Erdal & Rakip who weren’t permanent or aren’t here now).

I’ll be very p1ssed if we don’t buy a right back and get a striker in by some means. Parish will have me among the many questioning this shyte on his twitter page. I expect there’ll be a pie or several flying in his direction too.

COYP

Yet if you read the media any new player that we are linked with will have the words "Roy Hodgson has identified such and such player" as if Roy had anything to do with it