There is a simple answer to this question.
We have not strengthened the squad to the level required.

The board are completely to blame, particularly this season. Given our Summer dealings, this season's collapse was entirely predictable.
The only surprise is that we have stayed up this long.

Cabaye,Wickham, Tompkins, Mutch , Benteke, Townsend, 80 million give or take. SOLD Jedi , Bolassie , Gayle, and Murray. 40 odd million. Net spend is a lot more than 10 million.

rudi...tell ne if you see this differently to me but can you imagine pardew was happy with a £10m net spend, im sure if he was offered £50m he wouldav spent it, obviously £40 was spent the jan after pardew left but that was probably more sam wouldnt have come if he was promised the cash to spend. whereas (i assume) pardew & sp has a muchbetter working relationship so he accepted those figures.

the change in style was a bold move that worked for 6 weeks then papa smurf getting joe mangled in a car accident screwed the balance of the team, we can point fingers in every direction saying the problem lies here, here & here i strongly beleive that f***ed us, balance wise, much like wilf being out f***s us balance wise.

so yes, we shouldav signed a left back last summer, we should have signed a striker this summer but we didnt & we are where we are.

last summer if you had asked 100 fans what would they like, bentekkers or a lesser striker and a reserve left back i recon 85/100 wouldav said bentekkers, papes solid. its f***s luck i suppose

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway

ok rudi...last summer if i has offered you schlupp as reserve LB & shane long( for example) or bentekkers who would you have chosen?

on paper last summer looked decent (from the outside) sell yannick & gayle buy tomkins/townsend/bentekkers looks acceptable but in reality even if it cost £50m we could get a proper yannick replacement to join little old palace.

also i dont agree SP has little football knowledge, its just he has the unfortunate job of ruling head over heart to stop a multi-million pound buisness from going into administration again, only for us fans to bitch & moan he hasnt spent enough, and even then people moan he takes a relativly modest £650k p/a salary for the pleasure, which to put into context is only roughly 20% of what bakary sakho earns for being overweight & producing f*** all for the cause!

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway

you are correct, i will defend players & the club, maybe thats because i am realistic in my expectations, as the great homer simpson once said “aim low, acheive your goals, avoid dissapointment”

but did we have money for all the players you say after selling yannick? as havnt the club actually made a loss over the past few years, and actually borrowed from the next years PL cash cow money (risky buisness) just to keep up with the jones’ in transfer window with (i assume) the losses being made up by the owners.

also rudi we defo did not have to sign both schlupp & PVA in january we could have easily signed 1 of them and stayed up!

im not on any HOL radio agenda i just say things as i see them, but ive said every season all i want is for us to stay up on goal difference and would be over the moon with that, i think your older than me, im 35 so all ive ever known is midtable 2nd tier football with the odd flirtation with the big boys, thats why i dont expect the world, and would accept the bare minimum...im suprised you expect more than that given youve experienced curtis flemming/james scowcroft/andy morrison/tony craig/andy linaghan/frazier digby to name a few...f*** i forgot jamie pollock!

‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway

I really believe it is a lack of stability that is at the root of the problem. Pardew’s tenure was the only remotely stable time we’ve had and his entire managerial career has been characterized by huge fluctuations in form. The tipping point, which I fear we may not recover from, was appointing FDB. The man came across as an idiot, and the Huddersfield game was, I think, our poorest performance since promotion. Regardless of the man’s managerial skills, it is obvious to anyone with half a clue that our team is not capable of playing ‘total football’.

When you’re knocked on your back and your life’s a flop...