Nice points and all valid. But for us there isn't a next level IMO and, to be honest, it's better supporting a proper club than some plastic load of s***.

I believe Leyton Orient were actually in the old First Division for a season in the early 60s!

To take up a point the OP made ..

"I’ve got a feeling that so long as we stay up this year well then we could be around in the premier for quite a while to come"

Well perhaps, but for clubs like Palace there is always going to be an uncertainty about our Premier League future.

Before this season started I remember saying to people that it would be good if Palace could emulate clubs like WBA, Stoke and Southampton, all of whom seemed to have found a formula for mid-table security.Oh dear, not now they haven't.

The problem is that as a "smaller" club you are unlikely to bother the top 6.As such a good season is finishing around mid-table, or putting your nose in the top ten. Okay, let's say you manage to do that for a season or two, but then the challenge comes in keeping everyone motivated to be a just middling team without any real expectation of much improvement in your previous finishing position(s).

And if you do excel yourselves and knock on the door of the top six you can be sure your top players will be poached by the big boys as happened at Southampton, and then you have to build all over again.

I hope we can enjoy a good few more seasons in the top flight. However, it is unlikely we will ever be able to say we are "established". In reality that is something only enjoyed, at the moment, by City, United, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea - every other club is potentially only a season away from relegation.

I’d add Everton to that list with the recognition of the draw they still have for big name players and security as a PL club thus far. But I also recognise that the winners of the PL two years ago were extremely close to being relegated the season prior. So Id like to see us established like Leicester and Everton who still appear to hold the idiosyncrasies of a club with spirit versus lack of any real achievement (seeing as Leicester winning the PL was an unheralded effort). I wonder, though, if people would agree that delighting in mid table obscurity would be overrun eventually by the “plastic” desire to win something. The question still stands as to whether we would like to win the FA Cup and get relegated, or lose to Scumchester and remain in the PL for years with no silverware?

I think I’d like to stay in the PL and maybe play in Europa League games and threaten to establish our name more widely, but given the roller coaster we’ve experienced I could imagine we’re losing more fans to heart attack and stress than we are gaining because of the spirit of the fans and the pride of the club.

So I manage a Workshop which provides a safe learning environment for blokes struggling with PTSD and other mental health issues. Being a Palace fan isn't listed yet.

It’s mad when I drive passed Bromley and they have the names of that weeks game on, teams like Leyton Orient and Tranmere.
I’ve been Tranmere 2 or 3 times with Palace, not that long ago.
Need to appreciate where we are at the moment.
Also it’s mental that hartlepool needed 200 grand to stay afloat, not far off what Mutch earns in a month.

A very interesting discussion. The last line reminds me of another thread which claimed Parish was unable to take us to the next level. What is the next level?

I too had thought that level was Southampton, West Brom & Stoke but their current woes illustrates the real challenge facing the majority of clubs in this league.

There's the top 6, a declining list of mid-table clubs and then the rest.

Great discussion.

The next level up? Well that's easy for me - sorting out Selhurst. If we can get a sparkly new ground out of this unprecedented run at the top it'll all have been worthwhile.

Of course we'll go down again at some point I just want to have something to show for it. Equally to the point with a decent infrastructure and a capacity of Soton say we'd be in a much better position to capitalise financially next time around.

The one real worry I have is the moment we lose not Roy - Palace managers come and go do they not? - but Parish. Palace through and through and I fear one of a dying breed of chairmen.