What an idiotic behaviour from Paqueta yesterday. And he’s one of their best/most experienced players. Is he trying to force a move in January, having failed to move a few times near the window’s closure? Pathetic if so.
Always found him a little bit overrated also. Great final ball quality and variety, maybe he’s frustrated that he’s still at West Ham these days, but you gotta be more professinal than that.
Brazil made a big mistake at WC22 when they forced him as a double-pivot alongside Casemiro, mostly behind Neymar central. Just not a good combination. Guimaraes should’ve played much more.
Crazy to think we were in for Bowyer and prepared to pay 9m (before the Dyer fight but after he had been convicted of affray and separately charged with GBH)
Also, Glasner made comments after the Man United about how Palace had missed the opportunity to strengthen their squad etc., which usually doesn’t bode well, especially considering his contract is running down.
I genuinely respect them as a club on all fronts but I think they are a summer window away from not seeing the top half of the table in the following few years at least (Glasner leaving, Guehi leaving, Wharton likely leaving for a big sum, Mateta possibly leaving as well).
The problem is Palace have one of the smallest, if not the smallest budgets in the Premier league. It needs to sell players to fund squad recruitment or to pay higher wages. Without those, it’s hard to persuade the likes of Guehi or Mateta to sign new deals and stick around while the club builds around them.
Hopefully they have got Dougie’s replacent in and working on bringing in more talent.
They had a tricky summer, with that big question whether they’re in Europe or not, also struggling to improve their depth at CB. The whole Guehi thing got really close to Liverpool, but ultimately I do understand if they pulled the plug on it. The player himself doesn’t seem troubled, he’s been performing fine since. He doesn’t seem like someone who would do differently.
And yeah, at a club like Palace, you just have to keep rolling and find new ones. Parish recently said they’re putting effort in that recruitment. Can’t put too much hope in keeping a team together for anywhere near a decade, it’s unrealistic. But they’re doing some nice things off the pitch for the long term with investments in their Academy infrastructure and soon they will rebuild one of their main stands.
yeah, I can fault them for it, but can also understand how on deadline day the manager can put his foot down when his only option appears to have been that guy they were going to bring in from Brighton, and who I think is still to play any meaningful minutes for West Ham.
