Eddie

You know, the lads are doing better, you know.

The issue with all of these contract renewals is that so much will depend on how much we are paying him. If Hedges is being paid like a squad player, he is worth keeping. He offers a bit of versatility and can certainly do a job when asked. If we are paying him like a starter, he is best avoided. We won't know that, but there's little reason to believe that he would be commanding a huge wage. This isn't like the Dolan standoff where part of the situation clearly reflects an expectation of significantly higher wages.

But a lot of supporters, myself included, might feel the same way. Dolan is a good squad player, but I'm not sure he's much more than that. To keep him we will have to pay him like he's one of our best 4/5 players. Letting him walk might be the smartest move.

How much do you think his value increases after 100 Championship games? 150? I won't disagree that we rushed a sale and sold him at a time when we shouldn't have needed to, but he was going to be out the door within 12-18 months and we weren't going to get THAT much more for him. He wasn't going to stick around for years and anyone who thinks differently should look at how active his agent was in boosting his profile in the 6 months prior to the move and how active they've been since he's arrived at Palace. Adam Wharton wasn't just our golden egg, he's James Featherstone's as well.

But...but...but...he's the greatest ever. The club made a total mess of the timing of the sale and it was, as is the norm for our owners and leadership, a complete mess. But the amount of money we got was basically fair market value. He was never going to be worth 50m as a Championship player. As you rightfully point out, since leaving he has had a good run in the Premier League and been capped for England. His reputation and market value have grown exponentially as a result. The only way we could have seen him reach that kind of value here is if we had been promoted. Time and time again it has been shown that Wharton basically went in the same band as all of the bigger young prospects in the Championship. A few go for a bit more. A few go for a bit less. Even Jude Bellingham 'only' went for an initial 25m and he was a) better and b) more highly sought after. But I guess I should give my head a wobble.

Not only was he a better player, but he was vastly more proven. He'd played at a World Cup, starred for Ireland for several years, and proven himself over several season in the Premier League. Duff was more proven by the time we got promoted back to the Premier League than Wharton was before he left here. This is a repeat of the same old discussions and I wish that we had held onto him, but we didn't get THAT bad of a deal for him and a further 5-10m will make it a reasonably good bit of business for a teenage Championship player.

I thought Rooney and Plymouth were doing quite well? At least, that was the sense on here before and after they beat us a few weeks ago...

New ownership and Lampard is not held in quite the same regard as he was a few years ago, but there are still tons of players available on loan from Chelsea... Might not be the dumbest move. It was the key to his success at Derby.

Oh, I don't agree with the move, but it seems the most likely explanation. Either Gestede won the power battle and so Park was forced out, or Park realised that he was in a fight that he had no interest in and decided to leave before things got messy.

My guess is that Park has just been cut out and Gestede et al want more power and control. If Gestede has decided this is an area that he wants to focus on then something had to give.

Good result, but another poor performance. We've steadied the ship post-international break, but the performances are concerning. I'll add...really wish we'd signed Maja back when we were linked with him.

Well, hard to see when Toth is going to get to play. Pears has been a bit shakey the last couple of days and the international break would have been the perfect time to swap. We now have to face the inevitable of being stuck with Pears until he makes (another) three or four mistakes to cost us consecutive matches. We can only hope it comes sooner rather than later.

Not sure that's the most accurate representation of history.

Yes, but the way in which you answered the question implied that you at least saw some logic behind the justification. Not overly interested in debating it, but it's insane to care where the England manager comes from based on things that his country did - especially before he was born. It's quite pathetic that most of England's 'greatest' footballing enemies would barely describe our relationships as a rivalry.

Gosh, what a complicated view of the world you would have to have. By that logic, you're absolutely fine with 90% of the world justifying resentment and animosity towards the British? Should we hate the Irish? What about the Japanese? Was it OK that we signed Ohashi? Why did he get a visa? Should we hate all Russians? What about the Austrians? Feels like they get a pass. Is Andreas Weimann a Nazi? In living memory? Will it be OK for Tuchel to take charge of England in 20 years? That should cover the living memory part. It's a good thing my great, great, great, great grandfather died before I was born. Otherwise, I'd have a serious complex about the war of 1812.

It's been stated by the club, by journalists with good connections to the club, and by agents. I also have some additional sources who I trust on that front in relation to a couple of the players. No, the cynical interpretation would be that the big deals were offered to players who were 99% likely to turn them down - regardless of the amount. It was a good PR move to show some willingness to spend. I think there's a chance that this is true, but I also don't think it's true that we've consistently lowballed future free agents. If anything, for the last 2/3 years we've actually handled contract renewals fairly well. It was one of the few bright spots of the Broughton era. I'll reserve judgement as to whether the new regime will maintain that kind of proactive approach to renewals.

We've definitely consistently made a mess of contract negotiations, although it has also been confirmed that we've put some big contract offers in front of players. I think the process is the problem, not the offers themselves. We will have lowballed some players, but, let's be honest, most of our players deserve pay cuts. Dolan probably feels that he can get a significant pay rise by going somewhere on a free. He'll be able to negotiate a nice wage and a nice signing bonus based on the reduced fee (the tribunal fee won't be super high). He might be right, but I doubt it. He certainly isn't turning his heads so far this season. We shouldn't be overpaying him to get him to stay. In the long-term, we need players better than Dolan.

Tuchel was absolutely the best option out there. There were no standout - or even viable - English candidates and he brings a wealth of experience.

There is absolutely zero chance that Dolan is signed by Premier League club.

The thing is, I doubt he wants a 'fair' wage. Why do we assume that it's the club holding out? I'm not a defender of any aspect of our current regime, but you don't find many young footballers making reasonable contractual demands. As the Richard Sharpe article points out, he's probably already made an unwise financial decision by turning down the new contract and missing out on 12 months at a higher pay. He probably won't be able to make up for that lost income with his next contract. Dolan isn't in the Rothwell, BBD, or Szmodics category where you could make a strong case for really pushing the boat out. He's far more likely to find himself being Ryan Nyambe 2.0 and struggling to find a club once he has left here. He's young enough that somebody will take a chance, but we don't want to have to be that club. He delivers what? 1 game in 3? 4? It's not an easy situation to handle because any replacement will likely come with additional fees that might make them more expensive than resigning Dolan - even on an inflated deal. But I'm not excited by the prospect of overpaying to get 3/4 more years of Dolan. I'm not even excited by the idea of underpaying to get him.

Do we want them to not lowball Dolan? We certainly don't want to overpay him. Will there be a big market for him? Probably not. The reality is, he's not good enough.

It is nice to at least have some internationals back in the squad. Even if they're only unused subs, we've had a couple of seasons where a player with a cap has been hard to find.

How was Southgate an FA yes man? If anything, he did more to change the approach, mentality, and management of England than any other manager in the modern era.

As for England last night? I said it before he left, but we were always going to end up missing how good Southgate was at making us beat bad teams. The consistency that England have shown over the last 4/5 years has been taken for granted and we've instead focused on a handful of failures at the very highest level. It's a meaningless match, so no sense overreacting to it when it comes to what it means for Carlsey, but the good old days are back again.

Why? Seems like a dream job. He wanted a break from football and to travel and this position will allow him to work a bit without taking on the full-time responsibilities of management. He also has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave to be the manager of the German national side and it is clear that he hopes to be the next in that post.