Don't drink

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

That's a massive "if" you're basing all of that on. None of us knows who picked these players out, but I think if PV was deeply unhappy with any of them or the manner in which they were signed, then he'd have implied something in his post-match interviews or comments.

Bottom line is that to have the depth of squad we all know Palace or any team in the prem needs to be truly competitive for the upper half of the league or domestic and European cups, requires a bored billionaire with the GDP of a small country.

Absolutely bonkers amount of money needed at the moment and doesn't really show signs of slowing down.

The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots

Vieira’s job is to manage and coach the team, purchasing players isn’t in his remit, we have a D of F , who does that. It could be argued that he convinced the club, that Gallagher would sign and delayed any other possible signings, until it was obvious Gallagher wasn’t interested, then it was too late to get anyone else in.

It could also be argued, that Vieira was backed in giving him the job in the first place, 2 failed previous managership roles wasn’t the best CV.

The Manager and DoF needs to be a symbiotic relationship.. the DoF needs to keep an eye on the overall Squad, and generally with youth seems to be our policy. Whereas the Manager needs to tell him/Scouts what he needs in it.

The point I was making was that Vieira was brought in to manage a squad put together by the DoF. that's all fine, And a good starting Place. But to 'back' The manager you need that other way - he would have asked for some players to be brought in and I don't see huge amounts of evidence that that happened. Granted thats speculation as we don't know what he asked for, but I bet it was for more than a new DM.

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

1. Vieira came in knowing who DF had already brought in and I suspect would have been aware of who we were still hoping to bring in. He was presumably happy enough with the new arrivals to take the job.
2. He made it clear towards the end of the last window that we were 2 or 3 players short, and the club were trying to bring in more players. We weren't able to do so. Vieira publicly stated he was happy to work with what he had.
3. I believe that a deal of some kind for Gallagher was (virtually) agreed and he was coming but it fell down at the last minute leaving the club with insufficient time to bring in an alternative.
4. Last summer, prices became ludicrous as the window went on and we simply couldn't or wouldn't pay silly money for unproven players (unsurprising given our record of administrations over recent decades).
5. I have no doubt that DF et al. are fully aware of what we need and will seek to address that need in January if possible. If they can't, we'll just have to try and keep afloat until the summer window.
6. IN the meantime, let's get behind PV and the team and not let ourselves be swayed by the poor showing at Everton. We've still managed 7 points in the last 4 games despite inconsistent performances.

Edited by doombear (25 Oct 2022 11.13am)

I'm in mind of a recent post (can't recall who the post was by), the gist of which was just when we start to look decent and could make the next step in our evolution to becoming a solid upper / mid tier club then the necessary investment to make it so isn't forthcoming. And yes, it seems to me that this is an accurate summary of where we are - just clinging on, making do. Schlupp, Hughes, Luka, Jairo really aren't good enough for us to cling on - the essential engine room of the team neglected. Once again, I'll stress that the Everton result was no freak result, you can't go into games with just one midfielder. Hopefully the window will see some change.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (25 Oct 2022 12.09pm)