Eagle4Caley

It has been good to see reinforcements coming in following a bit of a clear out, at least we have enough to put out a team! Of course it's hard to know if any of the new boys will do enough of a job for us, we retained few of those who joined last year, most not really a loss, except Fisher and Laing perhaps (and IMO Larnell Cole). I think still think we look a bit light upfront, although our best recent seasons have seen us rely on just a couple of players, hoping that injuries were rare. But looking at the midfield we look very short of ball winners, hopefully Draper stays, but if he is out of the equation for any reason then we look vulnerable...I just hope the next couple of signings address that area. That aside if the attacking midfielders (wingers) can deliver we could have a decent season....I'm certainly looking forward to it.

The playing strip looks the dogs b#llox! I want one of those shirts...be fun to wear it to Palace home games!

Currently got my eye on Livingston away in November and the home game (with the missus) against Falkirk in March

Has a decent enough record at this level...good to get one on board, I see the Courier is suggesting we are still looking to do something with Kevin McNaughton and Louis Laing

Was delighted to see Marley Watkins has signed for Norwich City on a three year deal and joins the club officially on the 1st July. He was clearly a decent prospect when he was with us, and after Billy McKay was sold took over the mantle of being the primary attacking threat culminating in his excellent performance at the Scottish Cup final. Norwich is quite a step up although he was in the same league last year with Barnsley, but Norwich the sort of club for whom promotion to the EPL is always a distinct possibilty

Sadly not the first ex-player turned manager whose move has not worked out well (Palace's recent history is littered with such cases), I think many of us were concerned about his appointment, not least because he had no experience at all, and the club is quite light on resources and backup. But either the club or the man, or both have bitten the bullet, which I think gives us a better chance of a good go at getting out of the Championship. I'd like to think the board has an idea of who it wants as manager, and that we make a good fist of retaining key players for next season

I wonder if the board have decided they can't afford to fund a Premiership side and have decided to bubble along the bottom of the Championship for a couple of years to pay off debts....not sure if that's a model that really works, and given the outlay we have on transfers and wages as it is, I wonder what funding a Championship side looks like! What are the likely differences in attendances going to be, sure Celtic and Ranger draw a decent crowd, but even the Ross County matches saw attendances dropping off

It was a fabulous day, I felt privileged to be there, and the look of bemusement on my North London office colleagues faces on the monday following when I bought in the celebratory doughnuts was just great! Equally as good was the epic semi final win against Celtic which I managed to get to after an overnight Megabus trip up to Glasgow having watched Palace at home the previous day...can't remember the name of the pub I drank in near the ground before and after the match but that was special. Sadly my other team couldn't quite replicate the achievement the following year at Wembley which made the SC win even more special

Relegation...it happens, but we won the Scottish Cup under his watch, that doesn't happen often, I've watched Palace for 44years and never seen them win a proper cup (and may never see that), but I have seen them go into administration 3 times. ICT also got their highest placed league finish, into Europe and also a league cup final...not bad for a small club that's not been around for long. I'm sure he's sad to go with the club being relegated, but he can be proud of the record of the club under his stewardship

That strikes me as a quite a lightweight midfield, and I suspect Doran will be a perennial 'sicknote', as for that front line...meh If we have any decent youngsters next year is the time to get them into the team..but we do need a strong core, if we get that right, we stand a chance

It's bad enough going down, but to have your manager issue probably the worst of a series of post match interviews doesn't give one much optimism for the following season. I can't decide whether winning 3 out of the last 4 games when we had won only 4 of the previous 34 is any cause for optimism either, given that it probably confirms that RF had no real idea of his best team. It's either supreme belief or extreme delusion that he thinks 10 out of the starting 11 will be with us next season. Obviously the question of the moment is who are the mysterious 'three bad apples that have to be got rid of'? If it is not the starting 11 (unless he is including Tansey as one) then it's difficult to see who it is of any note....Meekings, Boden, OFW, Cole, King, McNaughton, Mulraney, Doran, Tremarco (!!!) see how damaging the speculation could be, although it'll probably come out if there is any truth in it. I suspect the reason RF wants a smaller squad, is that he found the man management side of things difficult, and a smaller squad is less disgruntled players to cope with. The annoying thing is that a starting eleven, that included the likes of Esson, Raven, Laing, Brad McKay, Warren (prob still good enough in the Championship) Draper Polworth Vigurs (again prob still good enough for the Championship) Mulraney, Billy McKay and Fisher, would do pretty well next season under the right guidance (I'm assuming Meekings and Tremarco are out of contract and likely to go)...in that line up I'd also include Larnell Cole, I might be in a minority but there's definitely a player there. However is RF the manager to deliver those players to the starting line up and to drill them into a cohesive and consistently firing unit?

Come on you Caley!

The Championship could be a really competitive one next season.... I have become unreasonably excited about the prospect of getting up to one or two from Falkirk (if they don't get promo), Dunfermline, St Mirren or Livingston (all grounds within reasonable distance of Glasgow/Edinburgh airports)..with either wife or daughter. I've just discovered that Livingston, who have quite a decent ground, are managed by David Hopkin who I saw score the winning goal for Crystal Palace in the 1997 English Div Play-off final at Wembley

On Holiday at the moment and didn't see the game... scoreline was an absolute shocker. That win against the Rangers seems such a long time ago! As I said last season when Yogi was moaning about transfer budgets and fans were moaning about 'tiki taka' possession football and looking for him to go over the David Raven non-contract, that we might rue his departure. To be fair to the board they are pretty much running the club on a shoestring....that 3rd place and Cup win was definitely punching well above our weight. I think they probably engineered Hughes out of the club as they couldn't afford his ambition. There's not a shadow of a doubt we're down and I'm sorry to say that RF has made quite a mess of things (was there much doubt about that in reality?). We won't return with him at the helm. Next season Falkirk, St Mirren, Dundee United and Livingston will contest the Championship and unless we sort the management out we will be contesting the bottom places. That said I have highlighted several away grounds that I hope to get to!

Let's face it, to stay up we probably need to win a minimum of 3 games out of the last 5 (including the game against Dundee) when we've only won 4 all season, and hope Dundee claim no than three points...then we would have to win the play-off. However does RF know what is the best team to achieve this? From the BBC report it sounds like we were definitely in the game, but we can't seem to stop the goals going in.