He might well have made a costly error in isolation and deserves to be sacked. But I don't think anyone will be fooled into thinking this cleans up the problem. We have fucked up transfers 3 times within 12 months, not all down to him. The McGuire deal also was only resurrected as a loan once the owners refused to approve the initial permanent transfer, causing late chaos. This wont happen again were the words after the O'Brien fiasco. Still the same owners which is the main issue. Still most of the remaining incompetent staff. Weird how he never ever made a similar mistake in how many years of working in the role?

Last summer we didnt sign a left back under the rhetoric of not blocking pathways with Batty as back up, when in reality we had no money. Batty played one game against Walsall, was awful, and hasnt come close to playing since even when Pickering has been injured, with us having to play someone out of position to cover him for half a season before we could loan in cheap back up in Chrisene. At least with Gent, he has proven at senior level that he is up to it, or so it seems. There are still question marks, he is playing in the Scottish League which isnt the greatest, his team have struggled and I havent seen him play but if hes more of a wing back say and we want to play a back 4, he might not fit in. But at least there is more potential for him to provide some cover, with more confidence as opposed to spending a year playing in the under 21s. We should never assume that players can step up purely on kids football, Gilsenan seems to be doing really well for example but he himself could have done with a loan, as it is we dont know if he can make the step up or be like Vale etc who couldnt. With presumably a small budget and an onus to slash the wage budget, I fear that problem positions will continue to remain weak. Are Venkys really going to authorise us signing a keeper when we have 2, one who got a pay rise and a long deal last summer and one who was our only paid for signing. Venkys wont care that the pair cost us loads of goals and I doubt any club is stupid enough to take either from us. Equally, our team is slow, dull and lacks goals. We badly need a couple of quick wide men who can offer a goal threat. We have Hedges who is our best wide man but doesnt score many and is injury prone and might miss pre season, Dolan who flatters to deceive, Sigurdsson who has been poor and Markanday who is nowhere near up to it. But unless we can shift one, will they allow us to strengthen and add to the wage bill? Possibly not.

It wont be £10m. I think we can safely say that.

We should spend money but there is not even a 1% chance that £17m goes back into the club.

But Pears has made loads of mistakes. So many especially considering he hasnt played every game.

Clearly defensive set pieces have improved but I feel like such a small sample sized based on xg is a bit misleading on our attacking set pieces. I havent seen an improvement, our corners in particular are just as off the cuff and ineffective. I remember a Hyam header v Norwich early in Eustace's reign, cant quite remember the second one. But mirroring in open play, I have seen clear improvements in solidity, very little idea in attack.

The conclusion is that its an absolute mess with people out of their depths pulling in different directions and sadly the owners cutting budgets all the while and doing nothing to put people in line/getting rid of them.

More Nixon made up shite debunked.

All keepers do make mistakes. The issue comes when you make too many and Pears had made loads.

Theres no way that we took on Fleck's full Premier League contract, whatever we gave him as a wage it was too much but regardless of who signed him, especially considering what Venkys have been like in the last year and how little money we have, I suspect Sheff Utd will either have paid him a lump sum or a chunk of his weekly wage since his departure. I mentioned when we brought a director of football in that there are risks to it, for example differences in opinion, the manager not getting what he wants, people pulling in different directions and a lack of responsibility, when things go wrong you have various people speculating on who signed who but no one truly knows. At a club headed by dysfunctional owners it did seem a potential recipe for disaster and so it has proved.

Eze and Olise are the 2 that make Palace such an entertaining team nowadays, both brilliant to watch. Mainoo is overated a bit I think, still very naive. Wharton is in a more complete team at the moment that is flying but obviously his quality is there for all to see.

Venkys forced the sale because they wanted the money. Distressed seller selling to the highest bidder.

We didnt sell Brereton, those same owners who are getting credit chose to stubbornly reject bids. Same with Rothwell. If you own a Championship club then losses are unfortunately par for the course unless you get promoted.

Im not forgetting him. Hes just been crap, although I suppoe although hes slow, cant take a man on and is soft, he does at least score the odd goal to be fair.

In the past weve been very lucky with goalscorers stepping up but theres definitely no one internal who will score a high number should Szmodics go. Gallagher and Dolan would be the obvious 2 because unlike the rest theyve scored at least a few goals per season over a number of seasons, Gallagher usually gets 8 or 9 and Dolan less. But neither has it in them to suddenly start banging them in. Markanday is not good enough and needs moving on if anyone will have him. Leonard isnt ready for regular Championship football and there is plenty of hype around Gilsenan but he has only played a couple of league minutes and he might have scored a decent amount in the kids league but its a massive step up, see Vale as proof of that so if he becomes a first team member we have to treat it as a bonus rather than something we bank on.

Jump ship? He had likely fallen out with JDT and wasnt playing.

Theyve said similar throughout, all hot air. Nothing in reality has changed, the same court case has yet to be resolved and the same disinterested owners remain.

Carter has had a terrible season including his injury. Hopefully its rustiness but he seems to have made at least a bad error in each game.

It is as if the last 12 months havent happened.

Do you genuinely expect the owners to allow that though?

No way are we spending £7-10m.

Could have said the same about Telalovic videos scoring v pub players.

How would it help cover central midfield? Do you watch much of the German 2nd division?

Cannon isnt a Prem player so probably will be loaned out for a hefty loan fee so thats us ruled out. Its an easy link, Nixon desperate for gossip to justify his patreon. Im sure he said us and Preston along with half the league wanted him last summer. He will hedge his bets on Cannon and many others.

Dont think he would be mentioned without the name.