Joel ward

[TheMajor]

Name me a player who your academy has produced who you think entitles it to be ranked as "one of the best in the country" - please don't insult us by naming players who are in your current side whose best finish in the last 3 seasons has been 17th in the Championship and who may or may not be sold

You would love an academy like ours, big Tone will stump up the money for your one, but it will be a few years before it would bear any fruit, so in the meantime, keep buying those CMS types

Thanks. That answers my question perfectly.

As with every other Palace supporter when pushed on the academy you cannot name one player , past or present, who can seriously be called noteworthy. But keep kidding yourself you are a big club producing superstars as it amuses the rest of us on a daily basis.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Not sure about the best, as I didn't see him enough to judge, but agree he's definitely up there.

It wasn't in defence you struggled last year though, is Freedman actually going to change tactics and attack a bit more? Or will that depend on which strikers you sign?

Freedman made it very clear last season that we weren't going to go all out for promotion - this was when we were in the playoffs at Christmas. He told the fans that this is a building season, and it will be all about the defence.

Freedman likes the diamond midfield we play, and says that the system itself is actually very attacking. However, he deliberately set the team up not to concede goals. It wasn't very entertaining, but it was very effective until our first team was completely ruined by injuries in March (which is when we slipped from the top 6 into midtable)

Next season we will be more expansive. Dougie is desperately trying to sign Sam Baldock to partner Murray and Zaha as our strike force. Along with Joel Ward, and Tunchev at the back (the latter is on hold at the moment) we will have a fantastic team.

Our first team last year was easily good enough for a top 10 spot. Unfortunately as the season went on we were never able to actually play it, and the weakness in our squad depth was the reason for our relatively low finish (this is not an excuse).

Next season, provided we can play our first team, we'll have a bloody good starting Xi and hopefully a stronger few fringe players too. This will improve us no end, and I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the top 6 next season provided Dougie spends his large transfer budget wisely.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Thanks. That answers my question perfectly.

As with every other Palace supporter when pushed on the academy you cannot name one player , past or present, who can seriously be called noteworthy. But keep kidding yourself you are a big club producing superstars as it amuses the rest of us on a daily basis.

The current crop of youngsters is the best we have produced. If the move with Clyne goes ahead as it is supposed to, we would have produced over the last few years:

Nathaniel Clyne --- Manchester United, £3m
Victor Moses ---- Wigan Athletic £3m, likely to leave for a bigger club this summer
Wilfried Zaha ---- We rejected a £7m bid from Bolton, Dalglish at Liverpool and Pardew at Newcastle very interested
Jon Williams ---- The best one yet. Made his debut last season and will be a fantastic player this season.

Of course, in the past we could mention Gareth Southgate or Kenny Sansom - with seven million and twelve England caps between them, but that's a bit too far back to be really relevant.

All I know is, there isn't a club in the country who wouldn't bite our hands off for Zaha, Clyne, Moses or Williams if they were offered them for £5m each (obviously Clyne is out of contract now)

 

[BensGrandad]

Wilfried Zaha ---- We rejected a £7m bid from Bolton,

Unsubstantiated rumour, you rejected a bid as how much it was there is a difference betwen what your club say and Bolton of about £4m

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Unsubstantiated rumour, you rejected a bid as how much it was there is a difference betwen what your club say and Bolton of about £4m

Not according to the BBC it isn't.

BBC Sport - Wilfried Zaha: Bolton offer £7m for Crystal Palace winger

 

[TheMajor]

Freedman made it very clear last season that we weren't going to go all out for promotion - this was when we were in the playoffs at Christmas. He told the fans that this is a building season, and it will be all about the defence.

Freedman likes the diamond midfield we play, and says that the system itself is actually very attacking. However, he deliberately set the team up not to concede goals. It wasn't very entertaining, but it was very effective until our first team was completely ruined by injuries in March (which is when we slipped from the top 6 into midtable)

Next season we will be more expansive. Dougie is desperately trying to sign Sam Baldock to partner Murray and Zaha as our strike force. Along with Joel Ward, and Tunchev at the back (the latter is on hold at the moment) we will have a fantastic team.

Our first team last year was easily good enough for a top 10 spot. Unfortunately as the season went on we were never able to actually play it, and the weakness in our squad depth was the reason for our relatively low finish (this is not an excuse).

Next season, provided we can play our first team, we'll have a bloody good starting Xi and hopefully a stronger few fringe players too. This will improve us no end, and I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the top 6 next season provided Dougie spends his large transfer budget wisely.

What is it about Palace supporters that makes them lie ?

You slipped out of the top six , never to return, in mid November. You only won one league game between January to end of Feb (before your so called injury hit March).

Face it - you were shit with and without your "better" players. You will do well to stay up next season - especially with such poor home and away support.

 

[making plans for nigel]

Thanks. That answers my question perfectly.

As with every other Palace supporter when pushed on the academy you cannot name one player , past or present, who can seriously be called noteworthy. But keep kidding yourself you are a big club producing superstars as it amuses the rest of us on a daily basis.

Your the one who keeps dragging up big club, superstar cobblers. Wouldn't you prefer to bring players through the ranks ? Why would you want to keep spending big money on players with no sell on value? I think the aim of our academy is to produce players to a high standard, who, if they leave, go to a higher level club, and we get a decent fee for the work we put into their development.

 

[leigull]

The current crop of youngsters is the best we have produced. If the move with Clyne goes ahead as it is supposed to, we would have produced over the last few years:

Nathaniel Clyne --- Manchester United, £3m
Victor Moses ---- Wigan Athletic £3m, likely to leave for a bigger club this summer
Wilfried Zaha ---- We rejected a £7m bid from Bolton, Dalglish at Liverpool and Pardew at Newcastle very interested
Jon Williams ---- The best one yet. Made his debut last season and will be a fantastic player this season.

Of course, in the past we could mention Gareth Southgate or Kenny Sansom - with seven million and twelve England caps between them, but that's a bit too far back to be really relevant.

All I know is, there isn't a club in the country who wouldn't bite our hands off for Zaha, Clyne, Moses or Williams if they were offered them for £5m each (obviously Clyne is out of contract now)

There's a lot of guesswork going on there. Clyne was meant to be signing for Man Utd in January, why's it taking so long?

You didn't actually get offered £7m for Zaha did you, Bolton couldn't afford that. I've read in many places it was actually around £3m-£4m, with add odds I guess. The BBC article doesn't have any quotes with a figure on it. If he doesn't progress this year and find a decent final ball then his value will drop and you've missed out.

Moses is starting to look good, but he has been away from you a long time now and so his development can't all be credited to Palace.

Agree Williams does look class and is a much better prospect in my eyes than Zaha. But again, long way to go.

Despite us having no real youth setup we haven't done to badly recently. Virgo went to Celtic for £1.5m, Hammond is Saints Captain, El-Abd now an International, Dunk and Hall wanted by Prem clubs, Forster-Caskey is with England under 19's. I'm sure I've missed some too. Not to mention Gareth Barry who should have been playing in the Euro's of course....

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Face it - you were shit with and without your "better" players. You will do well to stay up next season - especially with such poor home and away support.

No. I won't face it because it's not true you odius moron. Such poor home and away support? What world do you live in?

You must not have been supporting Brighton very long if you think that over 15k average at home is poor support.

 

[leigull]

No. I won't face it because it's not true you odius moron. Such poor home and away support? What world do you live in?

You must not have been supporting Brighton very long if you think that over 15k average at home is poor support.

Your season ended a lot earlier than March didn't it?

 

[TheMajor]

The current crop of youngsters is the best we have produced. If the move with Clyne goes ahead as it is supposed to, we would have produced over the last few years:

Nathaniel Clyne --- Manchester United, £3m
Victor Moses ---- Wigan Athletic £3m, likely to leave for a bigger club this summer
Wilfried Zaha ---- We rejected a £7m bid from Bolton, Dalglish at Liverpool and Pardew at Newcastle very interested
Jon Williams ---- The best one yet. Made his debut last season and will be a fantastic player this season.

Of course, in the past we could mention Gareth Southgate or Kenny Sansom - with seven million and twelve England caps between them, but that's a bit too far back to be really relevant.

All I know is, there isn't a club in the country who wouldn't bite our hands off for Zaha, Clyne, Moses or Williams if they were offered them for £5m each (obviously Clyne is out of contract now)

Moses was a bench warmer at Wigan for most of his career and only flattered recently and the other 3 got you to 17th in the Championship.

If you value them at £5m a piece then I reckon you could place a similar valuation on the heads of most players in the Championship home grown or not. Most clubs don't look to offload their better players.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

There's a lot of guesswork going on there. Clyne was meant to be signing for Man Utd in January, why's it taking so long?

You didn't actually get offered £7m for Zaha did you, Bolton couldn't afford that. I've read in many places it was actually around £3m-£4m, with add odds I guess. The BBC article doesn't have any quotes with a figure on it. If he doesn't progress this year and find a decent final ball then his value will drop and you've missed out.

Moses is starting to look good, but he has been away from you a long time now and so his development can't all be credited to Palace.

Agree Williams does look class and is a much better prospect in my eyes than Zaha. But again, long way to go.

Despite us having no real youth setup we haven't done to badly recently. Virgo went to Celtic for £1.5m, Hammond is Saints Captain, El-Abd now an International, Dunk and Hall wanted by Prem clubs, Forster-Caskey is with England under 19's. I'm sure I've missed some too. Not to mention Gareth Barry who should have been playing in the Euro's of course....

With Clyne I'm not sure why he didn't leave in January. Maybe we didn't get the right offer? CPFC2010 are confident of £3m in a tribunal.

With Zaha, the £7m bid was reported by BBC. Even it if were as low as the unsubstantiated £4m, Steve Parish described it as "ridiculous", and "absolutely nowhere near his value". IF Zaha were to stop developing, we would have made a mistake. However, I'm sure Dougie will have given assurances to everyone at the club that he will continue to improve. Everyone at Palace is completely certain that we've got a superstar on our hands - and the bids we will receive for him will either reflect that or be rejected.

There is no chance of Wilf leaving this summer for anything less than £7m. Jay Rodriguez went for that price today, and Wilf is twice the player he is.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Moses was a bench warmer at Wigan for most of his career and only flattered recently and the other 3 got you to 17th in the Championship.

If you value them at £5m a piece then I reckon you could place a similar valuation on the heads of most players in the Championship home grown or not. Most clubs don't look to offload their better players.

The fact that we finished 17th in the Championship has nothing to do with the skill of our young players. They are 17/18 FFS, their value lies in their potential.

Moses took a while to settle at Wigan, but it now consistently fantastic for them and is probably their best player.

We don't value them at £5m a piece. We value them at much, much more than that. We CERTAINLY aren't looking to offload them either. We aren't that sort of club.

CPFC2010 and Dougie have said constantly that the aim is to have a starting Xi made up almost entirely of academy players. We aren't too far away from that at the moment, and in a couple of years our first team will probably have 6/7 academy lads in it.

 

[leigull]

but it was very effective until our first team was completely ruined by injuries in March (which is when we slipped from the top 6 into midtable)

3rd March you were 13th in the table

 

[leigull]

There is no chance of Wilf leaving this summer for anything less than £7m. Jay Rodriguez went for that price today, and Wilf is twice the player he is.

See that's where you all lose the plot. Rodriguez scored 21 goals this year, he is showing that he's a good player and while £7m is a lot, he's done something to justify a high price.

Zaha contributed nowhere near that yet amount but is supposedly twice as good? Zaha is currently a show pony, if he does get an end product and learns to do something with the ball rather than just tricks, then he may well go on to be worth that, but a lot of people show the early signs of promise and go on to a long career in the lower leagues. Of course the staff at the club will keep bigging him up in order to keep his supposed transfer value up

 

[TheMajor]

No. I won't face it because it's not true you odius moron. Such poor home and away support? What world do you live in?

You must not have been supporting Brighton very long if you think that over 15k average at home is poor support.

Touched a nerve ? Were Palace in the top six in March as you claimed ?

Problem is you don't average 15k at home - you actually average about 13k . You are sited in a city with a population of over 12 million people within a 20 mile radius and have "enjoyed" 35 years of top two tier football. Yet, at present, you cannot pull in a decent home crowd without giving away tickets. You sit about 16th in the table for home crowds in the Championship and will sink even further down with the addition of Charlton, Sheff Wed & Huddersfield. Unfortunately poor support usually leads to a Club falling down the leagues.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

3rd March you were 13th in the table

Yup, you're right, it was pointed out before.

 

[Glenn-Murray]

Touched a nerve ? Were Palace in the top six in March as you claimed ?

Problem is you don't average 15k at home - you actually average about 13k . You are sited in a city with a population of over 12 million people within a 20 mile radius and have "enjoyed" 35 years of top two tier football. Yet, at present, you cannot pull in a decent home crowd without giving away tickets. You sit about 16th in the table for home crowds in the Championship and will sink even further down with the addition of Charlton, Sheff Wed & Huddersfield. Unfortunately poor support usually leads to a Club falling down the leagues.

We do not average 13k. We averaged 15k last season. The season before we averaged 15.5k. The season before that we averaged 15k. Our home support has remained fairly constant at just above 15k for a while now. When we are in the Premiership we get 25k.

Over 15k at home is NOT poor support. After all, you got promoted from League 1 with an average of about 7000. In the years below that it was around 6000.

I'm not sure what you think gives you a right to criticize our attendances when we've been tripling yours for most of the last two decades.

 

[leigull]

Yup, you're right, it was pointed out before.

So we've proved you're talking nonsense then?

 

[TheMajor]

Yup, you're right, it was pointed out before.

So basically you support Palace but don't actually go or know much about them.