The Board spent nigh on £120 Mill whilst Vieira was at the helm, purchasing players such as Andersen, Guehi, Olise, Eduoard, Doucoure etc etc.

Re-building was necessary after the departure of players at the end of Mr Hodgson's tenure but a significant sum was lavished on players.

Edited by Willo (12 Apr 2023 8.15am)

As I have mentioned elsewhere and as you note, this was a necessary spend, without it we would have half a team, and frankly the job was only half finished, particularly given that a number of players are now out of contract and / or clearly over the hill. The rebuild after Hodgson's initial tenure was always going to take place over a few seasons, probably due to financial considerations and the hope that the academy would eventually come good. PV didn't have the financial backing in the second season, and he failed to make the most of what he had left over from the first.
We are more or less where we were when Roy took over from FdB previously, eking out a PL existence with the hope of breaking into the top 10 should circumstances improve.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (12 Apr 2023 9.23am)

An astute point. It's not as if Parish woke up the morning of PV's final game and out of the blue thought to himself, "I'll sack Pat today." Negotiations with Hodgson must have been ongoing for a while, combined with, as you mention, the revelation that the board had thought of getting rid of PV going back to February, at which point our league position was fine. There's more to this than meets the eye methinks, the departure of Derry just another random clue thrown in to try and comprehend what was going on behind the scenes.

We did ok in some, and picked up some decent points. I suspect it was just the fact that it was hard game after hard game, for months and months. That sort of thing is going to start to ship away at confidence and game plan etc

Yep I agree there.

If his approach to managing is success contingent on a blank chequebook, which would be very 'Pep', then he'll struggle just about everywhere.

I have no idea the extent or actual truth but his general manner made it quite easy for me to believe he was avoiding the board and actively job hunting to suggest he had strayed very far from his identity as Palace manager.

The fact for me is that we have a far better squad now than we have had for some time and the old codger many paint Roy out to be came in and won games back to back scoring seven goals when we looked about as far away from scoring as possible, and without a win, for months under the disinterested and apathetic PV. The squad needs and needed improvement however was very far from the disappointing and disjointed performances we were churning out under Pat.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

I think it is clear to see that PV let himself down more than anyone else. No one forced him to keep playing Schlupp in that role that he could not play.