Don't forget we have to work within FPP rules.

We didn't manage to shift anyone else off the payroll by the end of the window so still have some hefty earners hanging about.

Why SP headed off after Tosun at the last minute who knows he may have thought that Besiktas may have gone for installment payments.

Presumably it was due to Niasse beginning to fall through due to agents payments and we could not have afforded both.

Judging from the latest accounts (2016), Palace had revenue of £102m, and spent £81m on wages (Claiming a pre-tax loss of £7M --which I'm sure they could write-off). I doubt the wage bill has gone down since, it probably went up --especially with Sakho now. I'm just guessing, but I think we probably are getting £2 more with Manbet than Mansion, and the sleeve sponsor brings in another £2M.

So even if they wage bill is static, and SP spends the new sponsorship cash on players, it still only gives a Transfer budget of about £25M, anything more than than that and it means going into debt or the owners kicking in more £££. It's still worth doing probably (if the alternative is relegation), but there is no way the club has £50M on hand to spend on players. Our net spend this window was £31M, which I figure meant going into (planned) debt.

Of course the way to free up £ is to get some of the expensive squad members off the books, and replace them with much cheaper young players. Which seemed to be the strategy (bar Sakho). Now if Freedman had actually managed to move some of the players rumoured, we'd have some room. I'll give him a bit of a pass, since he didn't have much time, but he is on the clock and better have some deals lined up in January.

January could be interesting, because the way the big clubs have spent on top talent, even they can't afford to have players on the bench making £150K, so there may be some good deals made to get their salaries off the books. Hopefully we are in a position to take advantage!

Bringing youth through absoultely is the right thing to do. However we havent given ourselves the platform to do it. Somehow we have squandered the last 4 years to the point where we enter this season with question marks over whether there are 3 worse teams than us yet the embarassment of riches that the PL offers should have us untouchable to any team getting promoted. It's not really about keeping up with the Jones', more about staying ahead of the Smiths and we struggle to do either.

Other teams of similar ilk (the Jones'?) and ambition have built robust sustainable teams that play with a clear purpose, objective and style. It's no coincidence that these teams are enjoying a degree of managerial stability. (Bournemouth, West Brom, Burnley, Stoke, even Leicester to a degree as Shakespeare is a club man)

So it's nice that Pards, Sam and FDb all think that we should bring youth through but it shouldnt be a priority for Parish. Get the right manager, and keep him.

Taking a very literal view on that £81 million figure -

Averages out at 25 earners on just over £60k a week.

So that figure is very realistic.

That is the reason FDB is here. To try and build a new sustainable model going forwards.
SP has known for some time what that model should look like.
However he needed to be in the right position to start the venture (not during the problems of the last 18 months) which is why we have started it now.
Palace will give FDP more time to get his project off the ground, instill his philosophy, methods and systems through coaching and training to the players.
We need to do exactly the same give him our support as well and just have a bit more faith!

Tosun scored a worldie tonight at Porto in the UCL. About 35 yards out bullet. None of our players can shoot. He may have had a bit of time. Only saw one clip.

COYP