I'd be very surprised if we went down this year. The 'games-played' figure keeps ticking away without the league position changing much. That's partly down to us, and partly down to others. We are playing poorly but picking up points along the way. One or two of the teams beneath us are getting their act together, but one or two are a mess, and not capable of the points-per-game ratio required to overtake us.

In the end, at some point or another, we will of course go down. We are not gravity-proof, and I don't understand the mindset that we should be 'kicking on' having 'established ourselves' in this league. We have a much bigger budget than most championship clubs but have never been, and never will be, big fish in the premier league pond.

Our income from the stadium is obviously fixed at a relatively low level in comparison to most of the clubs we compete with. Even the new stand will only bring us closer to our immediate financial rivals, rather than overtaking anyone.

In terms of prize money, the higher up the table we finish the more money we get, but that just means that every year at least half (usually two-thirds) of the clubs we compete with get more than us to spend next time-around. Basic maths tells you that it gets harder every year.

The financial figures are published openly. The FFP rules are complex but the gist is clear. I sometimes wonder if anyone even reads that stuff when I see so many comments moaning about 'investment' and the clubs being tight-fisted etc.

We are absolutely at the glass ceiling as a club. The academy and new stand are all about trying to find ways to stay where we are, but nobody can swim upstream forever.

When we do one day bite the bullet and go down, we should be a far, far healthier club than we were before, and far more likely to exist for future generations. Nobody running the club is incompetent, greedy, or lazy. Anyone with any knowledge of the club's history and the financial context knows that this is, unarguably, Palace at its very best. That is never going to be enough to consistently occupy the next level (European football). There are just too many bigger fish.

Relegation is an inevitable part of the life of every football club bar a very select few. A properly run club is one that can accommodate that reality, and it seems to me that ours can.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (14 Feb 2023 12.37pm)

I think Southampton and Bournemouth are down and 3rd place is Everton or Leeds

I would just like a full squad of players with realistic cover in each position . Is that really too much to ask for a team at the top level for 10 years?

I think to a large extent a lot of us loved the progress over the previous season, we have become frustrated because we recognise that at that time we were only a couple of players away from being a really good side, we lost Gallagher & Kouyoute leaving us weaker in the middle of the park & didn't kick on when we had the chance, for a lot of us this "time capsule period" feels like this was our time to be more than we have ever been before, seeing / feeling it drift away through lack of investment on the playing field (i.e, the want of a couple of players) is quite hard to take & now with the added uncertainty of the H&B saga (will they / wont they stay / if they go who replaces them)we are not surprisingly feeling vulnerable.

Those two sentences sum up exactly how I feel. A few seasons ago we had cover in just about every position. The first team players may not have had the quality of some of those we have now, but if there were injuries there was another option. How maligned was Frazier Campbell, but he was 4th choice striker. Now we have 2 and I'm certainly not convinced Mateta is any better than him!

I understand the investing in young players, but if they aren't going to play and are going to be loaned out, then I can't work out why we don't get others in. It's needing a core of 22 players that you can rely on, that I thought would be a priority.