I think Roy is the safest option. 'Royball' was what we did when we didn't have the players to compete in the middle. I think Roy's footballing brain is a lot better than PV's, who sadly didn't have a clue. I won't rant on about him too much, but he couldn't 'see' the obvious and showed little idea about player's psychology, dropping to the bench after they did well, failing to see Ayew's hamstringing of the presses by his slow play but winning free kicks, all PV saw was the free kicks, not the fact that Ayew halted forward presses, constantly, by appearing to do 'good' things - he hasn't missed a single game! This in turn frustrated (infuriated I think) Olise, with PV seeing nothing but his negatives. Olise couldn't get a game for AGES because PV favoured Ayew - most of us saw it, he should have been playing Olise from the get-go and we'd be several points up. Fans have been obsessed with Palace for years and while a lot of s***e is said you cannot dismiss the collective wisdom. Eduoard and Mateta were half decent when started, not Champion's league, but decent enough to play more often. Given time with the proper line-up (no f-king Ayew), Zaha and Olise on wings, Ed and Mat forward, with playing time getting to know each other more, we would have score a few more goals than we have, not hundreds maybe, but enough to keep us competing for mid to top ten places. I'm sure Roy will make his usual F-UPs in selection, but not as bad as PV. Roy won't be benching strikers after scoring, nor favouring worse players over better ones. I can't blame Ayew for wanting to play, but he's very sparing with his odd displays of usefulness. He'd be lucky to get on the subs bench in my team.

Realistically we’re not going to appoint anything other than a short term manager until the end of the season.

Paddy has no managerial experience,regardless of how well thought of he is at the club , and he would represent a gamble.

To bring in a manager unfamiliar with the setup and the players for the remaining games also represents a gamble as by the time he familiarises himself the season could nearly be over.

Hodgson and Lexington are very experienced and familiar with most of the players and the set up.
I may not like how Roy sets up teams, but I cannot dispute he knows the game and he, possibly in combination with Ray and Paddy, possibly represents the least bad option for the remainder of the season.

The debate as to how and we’ve ended up in this situation can wait until the end of the season.
For now the sole focus has to be on the remaining games.

I think it's rubbish to talk about most of the difficult games are played, and we are left with easy matches. The bottom six teams are fighting for PL survival, and have talented players.it's difficult to see where a win is going to come from, with strikers misfiring as badly as they are. It needs an experienced manager in charge, who knows the players and knows the club. Roy and Ray, welcome back.

Problem I see with this is let’s say we appoint them and we do stay up. At the end of the season Parish takes his 3 weeks off and then spends a month appointing a new manager. He’s not the quickest decision maker, as we’ve seen in the past. Give him 2 months to find a new manager and he’ll take it. We then end up not addressing the squad issues quickly enough (yet again) or getting in players the new manager hasn’t approved. We start next season with even more poorly prepared than this one.

Scanario 2 - we appoint Roy, we get relegated and we have to go through the same process but now perhaps needing half a new team.

There is a chance we get a new manger in straight away when the season finishes but that may be difficult as we won’t know what division we’ll be in, people are on holiday and Parish likes to take his time. Past history has shown us this.

That’s why I think we should get a permanent manger in now. One that is prepared to manage in either division. One we will back and let have more input on player recruitment.

We are in this situation only partially because of Vieira. A lot of it stems from piss poor planning in pre season splitting the squad into 2, leaving it late to get in new players and leaving gaping holes in the squad. That is the Boards fault. They need to see where they have gone wrong and not make the same mistakes again.

We need to accept that we may go down. We still have the same bunch of players, no one is going to magically transform them in 10 games. What we need is to be readily prepared for next season. The reason why Brighton and Brentford are miles ahead of us is they have a strategy and plan. We need to stop firefighting and get things right.

My fear is whether we stay up or not the appointment of an interim just kicks the can down the road again. Something the Board have been guilty of and got us in this mess. Need to stop short term thinking.

He is unlikely to say anything until his termination cheque has been cashed

Going back to Roy would be a major mistake and get us relegated like what happened at Watford. We need someone who will inspire the players and Roy fails spectacularly on that front. Rather like going back to an old girlfriend.

The players would lift their game under Gerrard… mark my words. I also like Sonny Marsch but feel he may not gel with players. He would interview very well though. I imagine him saying all the right things.

The beatings will stop when morale improves.