The thing to bear in mind is that the Youth teams are there to provide potential players for the first team.

Team results are not the be all and end all if you can produce just one or two players that make it through.

And that is where the Academy is currently struggling.

Cat 1 status and the investment in new facilities will make Palace more competitive when it comes to attracting the best talent so I see those as important steps forward.

I understand that Richard Shaw was frustrated at the way some of his players were being handled - lack of loan opportunities elsewhere and of course first team at the club. But I don't know that for fact, just anecdotal.

Old, Ungifted and White

Lack of opportunites isnt something that's going to change. When we have players who've played for Germany and Holland not getting a look in a youngster wont stand a chance at the moment.

I don't think investing in Roy with a season to go is likely either. A new manager will like a transfer kitty to put his own stamp on the team.

I have noticed that we have a lot of contracts ending next season.

Benteke, Sakho, Townsend, Schlupp, Mayer, PVA, McArthur, Cahill, Guiata, Ward, Kelly, Hennessy, and Wickham.

Surely the start of next season must be the best time for a new manager to come in?

IMO i'd like to the back of 7, poss 8 of these.

Edited by eagleman13 (07 Jul 2020 4.33pm)

This operation, will make the 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' seem like a simple military exercise.

Just because Roy's hept us up in the past in no way guarantees he'll keep us up in the future. To me he is losing it.

To hear him saying that Palace did OK and 3-0 didn't reflect the actual play is clearly delusional.

All managers bar a very select few run out of ideas for their team. I think Roy has now.

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

No complaints with that - we had a go and showed we can compete; lack of quality ultimately told, but a really good game to watch.

I still don’t understand why we can’t approach games like that more often - presumably going two down early forced us into it, but we very evidently have the quality to create chances at this level, if we want to.

This thread possibly would not exist if we saw more home performances like we saw last night.
It was aggressive, positive and chances were created with a much quicker tempo.
Less of the passivity and conservatism that are usually witnessed.
Perhaps it’s easier to play this way against the likes of Chelsea last night as they did not play a defensive midfield player and allowed us to get at them.
In any event a refreshing change for the fans to see us having a go.