When we had the likes of these players in the team, we played some sensational football under Roy. It can’t be denied that the results we ground out with our less than average and ageing squad under RH has been fantastic over the past 2 years. It was utter turgid and miserable to watch, but effective. If we had been expansive I’m certain we’d have been relegated, but as it were, we were never even close.

Vieira has just been given a £90m war chest to rebuild the squad and this is a luxury Roy never had. It was the right time for RH to go due to his age and he should hold his head held high. He was terrific for us and stabilised the club. I agree he failed at England, but why should that concern us as Palace fans? Dougie was useless at Bolton and Forest but a genius for us.

There are moronic comments suggesting that the RH appreciators want Vieira to fail. What a load of bush1t. Everyone wishes PV every success and he has made an excellent start which gives us all hope for the future.

Roy's job was to keep us in the PL and run down the inflated wage bill contracts so we could get younger quality in on half the wages .He did a fantastic job of that and Vieira is reaping the benefits.

I don't disagree with most of your points. I do think "fantastic" is an exaggeration, just look at the teams that went down. And Hodgson isn't someone I'd trust with a warchest to rebuilt a squad, especially as retirement was always a likelihood in the very near future.

It's fair comment to say we did just enough to get where we needed to with a team of experienced professionals and a formulaic approach.

There were many, many shortfalls in the approach which were incredibly frustrating to watch. When posters ignore all arguments, won't admit to the slightest fault, and start with petty digs, I think they deserve a bit of a wind up or dressing down.

What kind of adult ends a post with "end of" too? Always, a sign of stupidity.

This one paragraph shows how clueless you are, along with you're childish insults
"Townsend and Palace players have shown huge signs of improvement without him".
After a handful of games you can make that assessment, that's ludicrous.
What Palace players have shown huge improvement ?
Townsend has hugely improved ?
Because he scored a wonder goal, just like he did every now and again under Roy.
I find it quite baffling how some alleged Palace supporters bend over backwards to discredit Roy Hodgson, it's really very strange.

Andros has in recent years been very open about his mental challenges with the game of football and life in general, for which I have great respect.

What he has shared, I think, is that he's not a guy with massive, unshakeable ego/confidence that some players seem to rely on to come through shaky patches in form. This leads me to believe that, perhaps more than others, when he is happy and confident his game lifts to another level.

I've never coached any team more senior than Under 12s, but I think similar principles apply in that a great man-manager can help players find that confidence and enjoyment (the Bobby Robson doco on Netflix is a great example of this). I have no real insights into whether or not this was one of Roy's strengths, but at Everton Andros definitely seems to have found both and he looks like the player that got the England call-up again. Whether or not that's down to Benitez, his support staff, or the video from his mum, again I have no insights.

All I will say is that whether he was in sparkling form or not, I was always disappointed if he wasn't in the starting 11 at Palace as he gave us better balance, better defensive cover on the right, better crossing ability, and the increased likelihood of a belter from distance, than we had without him, whoever was in the team.

I really hope Olise, Eze or one of the other young'uns came help to provide the same balance. I don't think Ayew does.

I doubt whether Roy had much say in recruitment