This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [Music] Welcome to the five-year plan podcast, first podcast of 2025. Hope you've had a fantastic festive break and are ready to crack on with lots of palace content this year. We'll be answering your questions in this questions special. Joining us for that is Jack Pierce. Jack, Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you, Jim. Happy New Year to you. Any big extravagant events on New New Year's Eve or Bed by Ten? No, I have two young children, so it was better students after them. So, yeah, way before ten. Way before ten. Way before Joel's Holland was warming up his piano, so... We're in October when he recalled to you. Exactly. And also, Joining us this week and our intro comes from Mr. Jack Pierce of this parish out with the old and in with the new, Jordan I.U. Joe Walker, Joe, Happy New Year. Happy New Year, J.D., always lovely to hear the man's name, even though he's no longer at Celeste. It's maybe... I've started the year right. I'm thinking about Jordan I.U. and Palace doing good form. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of opportunities for him to haunt us throughout the rest of the season, so we will be talking about him again. There's a couple more... Can we start with the question? Sorry. You've got a couple of other new years related intros you want to check in, but if Jordan I.U. the season was fair, how many league ends have we played now? 19? Yeah. Would he have made 19 appearances this season of Crystal Palace? 100%. I was going to say I think maybe between sort of 12 to 15. That whole run where Kettie has been sort of shoehorned in place, his command has been played. I.U. would have started every one of those games I think. Yeah. I think he picked up a couple as well I think. He probably would have backed a few more, and I think I'll truck him to the mix. If I'll truck him to the mix, if I'll turn it on we'll still hear. I think in a score three league I'll buy this point. All in the same game and we'd be raving about him. He'd have got three points in 3-2-1 and then he wouldn't have played again. Well, the fact he has a point in 3-2-1 this season is an absolute mystery. They're out there before the last episode. He had more points than ever as though. I mean, that is appalling. And they say that we don't know what we're talking about on this podcast. I don't know if we'll get there with the questions by the way, but it struck me just how many lonese are coming back this month. Oh, yeah. I think Eduard's likely to get a shoe in there from Leicester. Malcom, Malcolm Abouay sounds like he's being set back by Oxford. Tyaradora Molas only had half a dozen games for Stockport. Yeah. Ola Adabomi is being set back from Beverin. I think he's been injured most of the time, but there's now a League 1, League 2 loans. He's been linked with... Maturins... Yeah. Yeah. The only one I've seen that's positive is that Danny Emre seems to be going to wick and wander and so is, yeah, being brought back from Bromley, which I mean, good for him. I mean, in another universe, he may have been kept instead of Capora, say, and had a couple of senior appearances for us, but I think the loans done him a world of good. But it's going to be fun. We might actually have a whole bunch of players in the squad and on the bench, but as we know, they're not necessarily... I think some of these loans approve that maybe they're not the answers to all our prayers that some people want them to be. And, you know... Oh, Luke plans coming back to. Let's not forget Luke plans. Oh, good old Luke Planche. You asked us not to forget about Luke plans. I think he's going to knock on his parents' door and they'll be like, "What? Luke?" As this pod's resident bucks resident, I'm happy to... I might try, if I can, go and get down and see a Wickham game. I'm only about 25 minutes from Adam's Park, and see if I can do a bit of a scouting report on Danny Emre. There was championship interest, Millwall rumoured to be interested in him, but Wickham flying this season. So, I think it's a nice chance we're going to play in a moving team, whereas I think the championship loan might have been more of a, you know, scored opportunity rather than first-team minutes. So, hopefully it just means that he ends this season still with 40-plus league appearances across League 1 and League 2. I know a couple of Bromley fans, they're gutted he's leaving. They've absolutely... He still might win their player this season, despite leaving in January, which kind of says it all, but they're having a good spell. So, it's been a very good move to him. Just a quick one on Joe Whitworth, who we've talked about. I know Celzy referenced it on the supplement this week, that X2 did recover from, I think, 4-0 down to draw 4-4. An absolute Joe Whitworth clanger in there, but that's not to do away with any of the good work he's done for X2 this season, because he has been potentially their player this season so far. You do see Joe Whitworth's clanger on social media over the next few days, because I think it's doing the rounds. Don't worry, that doesn't kind of typify his season thus far. He's been absolutely excellent. I thought you were going to say if you do see it, report that, report that to me and get it taken down. I was going to say really quickly, Bromley fans, we've been there. You know, we've been in that situation where, you know, Terry Feeling, I just remember being gutted when he went back to Madison City or Everton, I can't remember. We have a young and upcoming young star. What's the feeling? What's not a goal-scoring fallback? Kenny Brown? Kenny Brown? Steve Staunton. Halfway line against Charlie. What a goal. That was a goal-scoring. That was so good. Actually, Cole got a goal for us as well, didn't he? You did it again. It's fairly important, Cole. Yeah, actually Cole. David Spoil. We've been left back. Left back, low knees. But gone are the days of getting, like, veteran players on a line. Just to kind of, you know, they're just Steve Staunton or Terry Feeling. Yeah. Yeah. To those coming up, please. Yeah. What was that? I mean, I'm playing at the Euro in six times later. It's graceful. It's graceful. Um, anyway, would you like the two other? I'd say the two other. Oh, yeah, sorry. You'd like them. You guys came up with them. So here we go. Hogman A. Julian Gray. And I know this one will annoy Joe Walker. Who to nanny. Oh, okay. Which I know you're not a fan of the old reverse. But hey, listeners. We'll accept them. Contact FYP fans in .uk. If you've got an intro or an outro, we've got an outro later on. So, but please do send them in. Really quickly, we've got some New Year's wishes from Keith Dimond. AKA Magic Cheese. First of all, I want to wish the panel and all listeners a healthy 2025. Thank you very much, Keith. Thanks, Keith. Is it anyone else on the panel and listeners who bets on our will use yellow card on each game to pay for half-time drinks? Great. Great. Not bad. Not a bad shout. Or to maintain the economy. Yeah. Did Rachel Reeves? Proper good yellow card for him yesterday as well. Yeah. Captain. And just, we didn't talk about it earlier in the week. Captain. He was the captain. Yes. We were wondering, weren't we? Yeah. Because I think given the uncertainty about him being fixed as his injury at Bournemouth, we weren't probably putting him forward, but actually the right choice. And not a man who shows his emotions too often, but he sensed after the match, had finished his post-match comments. There was a bit of pride there. I think that's the first time he's captured on the team in the Premier League. So, yeah, good moment for him. But he did end it saying that the proper capture is coming back next week. So, Dean Henderson ending the game with the with the Iron Man, not one for goalkeepers with the Iron Man, but it seems that all of the classes there is. Who else would have maybe looked, I don't know. I don't know, but. Look what probably would have been would have been in line for it. I think Henderson is not a bad shout. Given his personality. Yeah, he knows. Yeah, he's a shout-out, I guess. Yeah. There was a there was a noticeable lift in the pub garden when Hughes was in the starting line up. I have to say, I think we're all kind of hoping that maybe it decor is enough to be thrown in. Let's hope he has an hour in him and then God knows what. So, Hughes being available on Sunday was massive. It really was. And he gave the kind of performance we know he can put in, at least for as long as he was able to. And just one of, you know, I think we did 3-2-1 earlier in the week. He was the other name I had in my head that wasn't mentioned. Just because I think the difference makes him being in the team. You know, he's not thrill a minute or anything, but in games like that, traditional matches, he's going to help us get over the line and add on to the captain's armband for the first time at Palace. It was nice and I'm glad for him. Yeah, me too. I mean, he's actually, it's not at any points in 3-2 on the last 3 weeks, but I actually think he's been one of the most consistent performers. And actually, we're talking about JP having a good year. Will Hewitt has had a fantastic year in the Palace for his Palace career, really become very reliable. You know, exactly what you're getting from him. And I think that would have been a much tougher game against Southampton in his absence. Did he sign a one-year extension at the end of last season? And if so, do you think the club are already talking to him about a further extension and perhaps maybe a longer-term deal? Because I think that was an extension beyond his first contract he signed in 2021 with us. I hope so. I can see Joe is Googling to hopefully have an answer. But I hope so. Yeah, that should be hard on the priority list for me. Yeah, BBC report on the 2nd of May that he extended his deal by a year after treating an appearance clause. If it's a similar set up this year, I imagine he's going to meet that appearance. He will, I just wonder whether he's probably earned himself the right to say, I don't want one-year extensions here or now. I want a little bit more money. I agree. I just wonder whether the club will be sat down and we might start to hear the murmurs. The murmurs of that one. Because I don't want to go into next season without Will Hughes, to be honest. I think he's been our most consistent central midfielder this season by a country mile. So, yeah. I agree. I agree. Let's move on to a question from Mark. The sea who says, "Have we yet again fallen in love with a Chelsea loney?" We talked about Chalova earlier in the week. Jack, where are you with him? I wouldn't say fallen in love. I don't think he's quite in the Gallagher bracket. But he's certainly, I think, winning a lot of people over. He's absolutely first choice on the right side of that back three. He's almost certainly adding a couple of zeros to his Chelsea price tag. But he's definitely starting to really settle in. Yeah, I think he's becoming a bit of a favourite with the crowd. Yeah, once bit and twice shy. But I'm still thinking it would be nice for him to be added. But it would have to be a deal that suited Palace. You couldn't go chasing what Chelsea might be asking for. I think if he continues on this level of form for the whole season, I think it would be a good piece of business to add him. Given that he will have formed a part of a back three, and it's considered very, very likely if not certain that Mark Gay will depart next summer, come in his contract situation. Do you want to be replacing two-thirds of a defensive unit? But it's not an outgift to be certain of that, given that Chelsea controlled the power regarding this deal. I think it probably would come down to the level of interest that Trevor Shallowbar had in him. And there was previously interesting seasons gone by kind of Italian clubs looking at him. I think other Premier League clubs would be interested in seeing what the value Chelsea would put on his head. So I don't think it would be an easy deal to be done. But I can see the club maybe wanting to do it if he maintains this level of form. If he falls off a cliff between now and the end of May, then no, and we'll just have to swallow replacing two members of the back three in one summer. We'll just have to do it. But I like what I see. And if you can iron out some of the issues that he does have, I think he's a very, very capable Premier League defender. Unless, Joe, Mark Gay, he goes back to Chelsea. That possibility is never far away given. I just assume Chelsea will always find a way to spend some money and get away with it. So never rule that out. We look better with Trevor Shallowbar and the team. There's no question about that. When he is more adventurous, it doesn't always come off. But I feel like so far this season he appears to have had the best relationship with Daniel Munoz of the right-sided centre halves that we've seen. Chris Richards isn't quite a natural there. And then, certainly, Laquard did not look comfortable on the right side of the three at all in the two free games we saw there. So, yeah, I think he's going to grow across the season, and I think we look better for him anyway. I think the way he conducts himself, particularly after the games, and that really adds to the kind of love for the fans for him. I can totally see people really wanting him to stay on that basis because he's really bought into the idea of being a Crystal Palace player, which is, you know, you don't normally expect that of somebody with a loan move that's got no obligation to come back, who has played a whole lot of Premier League football and Champions League football, so it doesn't really, you know, might feel he's above the step down if you like, as hurriedly kicked out the door, he wasn't Chelsea. But, yeah, I'm just kind of happy to see where it goes, to see how the season plays out. There could be a situation where we all kind of come to an agreement that he's not going to stay, and then he just suddenly isn't being played in April or May because we maybe don't have something to play for and we need to blood in Chaddie Rea properly or something like that. A second half of the season could be very, very interesting. It's the annual client's time of year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you got in that Chaddie Rea. He's on a bit. Yeah, he appears to go away yesterday. Yeah, completely forgotten about him. The thing with what might happen in the summer is, it even does have a good second half of the season and therefore contributes to us having a good half of the season and the desire to maintain him as part of the squad moving on increases probably, well then so does the increase in his cost. That is the issue of alone signing. The better alone signing looks, the better he looks to his parent club and he kind of goes along those lines, but I like him. I think he adds a lot to our back line. I think I agree entirely with Joe that he is of the current batch rightly in that back three. I suspect he probably feels that he could be playing at a higher level than maybe where we are at right now, but hopefully as the season progresses we might reach slightly higher parts of the league table, but I think he probably considers himself because he's done it previously, Champions League caliber. Yeah, his contract's up in 18 months, end of summer 2020. That adds to it as well. So it may be not as much money as we've probably been speculating possibly, but we'll see. Yeah, we actually ever signed a player from Chelsea after a loan. We didn't sign the kill for sale, did we? No. No, we did. It was Danny Granville alone signing. I think he's bought directly. I think he was bought. That's why I came back online, but didn't... Lost his cheek. No. Lowick Remy. Oh, terrible. Awful. Awful, awful, awful. Bamford was signed. Oh, gosh. I mean, Bamford's gone on to have a better career than Lowick Remy, so... Yeah, he's going to wreck something, isn't he? That's the big rumour. Yeah. 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Let's move on to January signings, because it literally is January, so it's probably fair that we do that. Here's a question. Well, a couple of general questions from Leif Anderson's forehead. He says, "How many players would need in January?" I think we'll make these inside, but a shorter couple. Danny Webster just says, "I think we need a few more players in January. Our bench is limited." So you are going to talk about it if you want to. But Jack, let me throw you this scenario from Bradman 1967. Hello, Bradman. If we do sign a couple of attacking players, would you sell Commada if a club offers, say, three million, and let Schlup leave on a free in January? Sorry to laugh, Bradman. It's not so much the question, because I agree. I think we probably ideally would be looking to maybe move him on, because of the wages. But I just can't see anybody coming in for those who come under right now. I think if he did, three million, I'll get money in 2020. He's on 100 grand a week, Jim. He'd have to agree to go. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's true. Yes. I think dodgy commander and palace made part ways this summer. I think earlier in the season I asked Joe, will dodgy commander play 50 games with Crystal Palace? I don't think he'll play 30 games with Crystal Palace. Anyway, I just can't see that. I think even if we were to loan him out, and if we were able to loan him out this summer, we'd have to supplement his wages. So even if we paid 50% of his wages, we've only got 50 grand a week. We've only got 50 grand a week to chuck on a loan signing sale, someone who's available. So I don't give it his versatility. I think the manager will probably keep him around while he's a Crystal Palace player. I don't think that's live on Jeffrey Slop. It's very difficult to release players mid-season. What's Jeffrey Slop got to earn from that? Yeah. I just can't see that happening. In terms of the other questions, the other points made, I just think it's very obvious. I think the manager's making it incredibly obvious that he wants additions, needs additions. I think he might be regretting going public with a couple of comments about wanting a 20-man squad. I think he was trying to spin the positive when he was left with a 20-man squad. Yeah. I don't think necessarily the case that he wanted to have no options. He didn't want to replace Michael Lisa with a number of different talents. I don't think that is the case. Sounds like the El Haggie Malik-Dufe one. I love that Selzy put in the supplement that he's been an intrepid reporter and spoke into his contact that's lovely of Prague. We've got an idea of his quality and Selzy's contact said that he's a talent. That sounds promising. There's quite regular links with him now. That could be one in that left-hand side cover as it would be for Naofa Tyreek is much needed. I'm intrigued to see what we do with the rest of January's income as if we do anything at all. I trust that we will. Seeing James Macatee, if they don't, I just think it's almost negligible. James Macatee, Joe? James Macatee, Link? I've seen him linked. My concern with him is that I don't think we can do a loan, so it becomes right. We'll probably have to pay north of 20 million and then we have that thing hanging over us at the moment. I don't know if we discussed it on here to the extent where it's rumored that this actually buyout might just keep textors or Eagle Football Group's interest in Palace. It's rather than a full buyout. It's joining the Eagle Football Group, this prospective bid from Sports Bank. How much of this money is going to actually arrive on the lap of Palace to spend? If this all happens in time for January, it might not. The club might be averse to expecting that money to come in and therefore spend money that hasn't arrived yet. I could totally understand if they weren't brave enough to do that. We really don't know what we're playing with here. I know we made a little bit of profit in the summer in terms of spend versus income, but we're also told that January was a little bit of this time last year was money spent. June meant to be spent in the summer, pulled up in six months because we were all over the place. Who knows what we've got? I would say to add to what you said about the question about people we would let go. I would be shocked if anybody left to this window because of this issue of depth. I think Palace is just going to swallow it and go, "If Jeffrey Schlupp is the sixth-choice midfielder or whatever, so be it." We kind of need a class of player that's maybe going to be on and off. Maybe we're getting in the match day squad because we're just so low on options. We need to change that. It's just about whether the players coming in will be good enough to do that. I hope so. I think the wing-back situation, particularly a left-sided reserve, is the ticking time bomb that we've got away with for so long and now's the time. Hopefully that will be resolved. Possibly even by the time this episode goes out. I think another wide player, sort of an adventurous forward that's a little bit more of a dribbler or confident, someone that takes on players, we need another one of those. In a magical world, that would have been Mateus Francis, but it's been to rely on him and depend on his return is brave at this point. We need another player like that. Then maybe then, if you're greedy, you start looking at, could we do another central midfielder because we just got someone absent. There's a chance this water injury can just recur and recur and recur. It seems such a strange one that they're a bit nervous to talk about or commit to. All of the glasses seem to be getting asked about it every week. He's understandably trying not to say it anytime soon. We might not be able to rely on him this season. Can you imagine something like that? Who knows? Maybe we need another midfielder. I'll just describe not doing anything as negligible. It certainly wouldn't be negligible. It meant negligent. It would be negligent to not add to this squad in certain areas and just add to the depth would be chaos. I hope whatever the boardroom situation, which we haven't really touched on in recent weeks because it is quite complicated and the information that's coming out is a little bit here, there and everywhere. Joe's exactly right. We don't really know what cards are playing at. It wouldn't surprise me if using the contacts the club have got, whether we pick up a few loan signings from the continent rather than make permanent signings at this point. They're ready to go. They're ready to go. Joe's other point about not having a Premier League loan because we had to use it on a reserve goalkeeper. It also looks a little bit of a dodgy decision in the summer. We'll see. We'll see. But I think incoming will be happening at Palace. I think generally across the Premier League, I think there will be more winter transfer, window deals done nowhere last. I think Palace will want the only clubs to do anything last January. I hope so. I think those areas that Joe's highlighted are exactly. My answer to Bradman would have been, even if he signed a couple of players, no, I wouldn't let anyone go. In fact, I'd want a couple more attacking players before I even thought about letting commander and slop out the door. Not that I rate them, but I just think we need bodies at the moment. We are in a couple of injuries away from serious crises. But hopefully we're on the other side of that now, and we do see a bit more of water and decorating. We can relax a little bit. Really quickly on Tyree Mitchell. I know we talked about the left-back position. Steve Sharper said, "What do you think about the Mitchell situation?" Interesting to hear Glazner's comments, which we should talk about last week. I think we'll see a new left-back coming and possibly see Mitchell leave if we can get a fee. And Andrew Proz-Nitz says Mitchell is a phenomenal left-back, but lacking an attacking threat still. Do we give him time to keep improving in the area as he has got better? Or do we look for a stronger left-wing back option who can help bring more goals because we're sorely needed? I think if we sign this, "Oh, how'd you mallet youth, Jack?" I still think Mitchell will be first choice, but I think it will be someone else that has an option. I would love to see Mitchell become that guy, but I do appreciate each time we roll into it. Each time we roll into a new season, maybe he hasn't added that threat to his game. It's harder to trust him with that, but I still think he's number one. 100%. I can't see any transition from Tyree to another left-back, particularly if it's a 19-year-old whose highest level he's played is the Czechs League. I don't think that transition would happen until some point in the next season at the earliest. Sorry. Tyree, I wouldn't let go of him either, Tyree, to be honest, regardless of whether we bring someone else in. I think there is some suggestion his contract runs out this summer, but Matt Muslims confirmed that isn't the case and is valid and ready to go until 2027. There's no issue on that front either. There are limitations. There's not much more to say than what we said last week, to be honest, in terms of we know what Tyree's limitations are. We saw them again yesterday, earlier in the week, against Southampton. But then you do see and Joe started it regularly this season. There are still moments of quality in that final third. That ball he puts across the six-yard box that Daniel Munoz ends up scuffing was a really lovely, well-weighted pass across the box and his timing of his run was very good as well. He is improving on that facet, but he is not Roberto Carlos in one of a more modern reference. He won't offer us that the Daniel Munoz does, but equally, I don't think Tyree Mitchell gets beaten as easy as Daniel Munoz does for the Southampton goal earlier in the week either. You take the good with the rough, and I think for now Tyree will still start the majority of games, even if we were to bring in an alternative left-wing Mac. You agree, Joe? Yeah, I think so, however good the other option is likely to be. It will be a more attacking left-wing back if we do bring someone in. I imagine they will be slowly eased in, or it may simply be they brought on over chasing games or the other way around. We need to just freshen things up. It allows Tyree Mitchell the opportunity to rest occasionally. It's interesting the difference in how our wingbacks build up play. You think that's Southampton game? Munoz was over the halfway line, pretty much the entire game, really. Obviously a tactic, obviously a strategy, and he does naturally kind of push us up the pitch anyway, but then it's that Kyle Capita is losing for Dustin. I will concede in the Arsenal game Tyree Mitchell gets done on his side for two of Arsenal's goals, but that's very much the exceptions that prove the rule. He's very dependable as a defensive fallback. I think where Mitchell looks a bit like he's making hard work of it is in the build-up play. However, that chance for Munoz from coming from Mitchell, almost he's strongest as the kind of rugby style. He's the overlapping left-back and he's got the opportunity to cross. You don't want him to actually try and need to take on a player to take a cross in. That's the difference between him and Munoz, I think. That's okay. We're not going to get the same type of players pulled out of a hat in the way that we recruit. I think it just hit 150 for Palace, Tyree Mitchell. That's as an academy's product stroke, someone we've managed to brag off Brentford for nothing. That's an incredible player that we've got a lot out of over the last few years and got away with his fitness. Yeah, there's been a gamble, but I think we've won that gamble. [music] Let's round off these questions episode with a couple of sort of mid-season review questions. The first one comes from Graham Cook, who says, "Half-time in the season, what would the old-style school report grading be? I'm going to go with B for effort and C plus for attainment." I don't know what that means, so I think Graham has aged himself there. I'm not quite sure what he means by attainment. Or is American. Or is American. Please explain, Graham. But I'll ask you both for one grading, if possible. Jack, you can go first. Influenced by the anticipation from the end of last season to the beginning of this season, C minus probably, just because how disappointing the start of the season was, to be winless after eight games and to be going into wolves away thinking, "Jesus Christ, the manager needs to win this game, otherwise there's going to be people at the door." It was crazy. I just never expected us to be there, and the longer this half of the season's gone, the worse the recruitment looks from the summer. So, yeah, that's not reflective of either the manager necessarily or the players. I think Gaster has got a few things. He don't think he's got as many things right as he got towards the end of last season. Yeah, I think that's probably fair to say, but I think he's probably better than the C minus. But I think the overall, in certain players, about very good halves of season, Dean Henderson will use Jean-Philippe Mateta. Look whoa, but I think overall, as a fan, I think I'm pretty stick with C minus, might be a bit tough. It could be a plain C, but I'll go with C minus. Do you have any improvement on that? C plus was my instinct before Jack has said that. And it's for a similar reason, it's the recovery. I want to take this moment really to actually give all of the glass in a bit. These flowers, why you can still smell them. You mentioned that Wall's game, and I mean, we didn't win it in the end, but I think that the Tottenham win and then the Villa Cup win sort of almost made that cushion. But then we lost to Fulham, and we knew that we have Fred Baer squad-wise, but we there, we were panicking. Let's be honest, that post pod was, that week I certainly was worried. We've lost once since then. That's two months ago. We've not won a lot of games in that time. We've probably won the essential ones in there in terms of Brighton, Ipswich, and Southampton. But we haven't lost either. The Arsenal game is what it is, but drawing away at Bournemouth, drawing with Man City, drawing at Hoats Newcastle, getting 2-2 at Villa with no Eze and no Wharton. Do me a favour, guys. Because of how badly we started and where we are on the table, and there's that kind of impending dread that is just being a Palace fan at this time of year, we are in a run of form that we're probably not getting as much credit for. Certainly the manager is not getting much credit for. Given that we identify the same problems pretty often, which is just no depth. Really terrible second half performances because we've got nothing to offer. Play is missing. We are finding a way to just tick up the table, get points on the board every week. And it's getting us into a position of recovery that looks ambitious at best, you know, around that. Let's say the forest to feed and the wolves draw. You're still worrying if that Tottenham result was just a flash in the pan. We are, I'm going to say, I think we're OK. Oh, no, he said it. I think it's a B-minus, and I think for all the reasons that you've just said there, the fact that actually, compared to previous seasons, 20 points halfway through, is actually better than a lot of recent seasons. I think we're setting ourselves up if we have a good January and get players for hopefully quite a good second after the season. Sorry to interrupt, and you say that January, you know, we've got Chelsea this weekend and we'll get onto that. We've then got Leicester, West Ham and breakfast, and then a stopport game in there as well. These are kind of games we've probably been hungry for over the last few weeks. So there's an opportunity there to capitalize. If we fail with knees, then, you know, we can be glum again. And that's why you hope that we get our son of our recruitment done early so that these aren't wasted opportunities. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Good question, though, that from Graham. Let's move on to our final question, which is from Neil Simmons, who says, "Is this the most difficult player of the month/321 decision so far?" No stand-up formative at all. Also, still, why Commander? We've discussed that. I want to open that out, Jack, and say, "Would you like to make a prediction for 2025 for player of the year?" Maybe based off our three to one point so far. At the end of this season, yes. I think a few different factors have come in. If Laquois continues, maybe having some real stand-up performances like he's done, you know, Spurs' one really stands out, born with less or so, but, you know, still very, very high caliber of stand-up performances. I could see him, maybe, I think it goes to the public vote. I could see him getting votes because of those, but I think Dean Henderson or Will Hughes might get it this season because, you know, hopefully, things improve significantly. Our points return for the second half of the season is much better than the first half of the season, but I think maybe Will Hughes will get it this year. Maybe Will Hughes. Joe, he's my early favourite, I'd say, just because he's reliable, dependable, not just in terms of performances, but he's pretty much available all the time, even despite the yellows. He's there when we need him and at a time when we've been really stretched thin. He's been one of those that stepped up and not just been a body that we could put on the pitch. He's actually been putting in performances that have come through. So I've got a lot of goodwill towards him, but I'd also agree with you, Jack. I think if you're looking at others, potential candidates who could step up second half of the season, the choir's probably the most ripe of everybody, and maybe Dean Henderson, if, you know, some more of his kind of main character performances, bring it on. Let's see. In terms of 3-2-1, Jim, if you carry on making us give certain players three points, then maybe Eddle win 3-2-1. Damn, you've found out my plaid. You've foiled my plaid. Do you think Hughes will top 3-2-1 then? I mean, he is currently joint second. Well, fingers crossed, we have some, you know, performances similar to the end of last season, where the front players get all the plaudits and JP racks up already, and Katia starts to get some points, or unknown signing starts ramping up. A little bit like when Michael Alesay returns towards the end of last season and I think got very, very close to topping that chart by playing, you know, third of the games last season or something stupid. You know, if somebody comes and really hits the ground running, that's why I quite like 3-2-1, because it is quite of the moment. You know, there is an element of consistent analysis over the season, but equally, if a standout performance grabs your eye, then we're going to put them full for that as well. And the right player won last year over the last season, but I will say, just looking at it and talking about in the moment, Eddle and Katia is fourth. Yeah, I mean, he was turning up and looking better when not many others were, so I think he probably got points out of his less-to-date view, which looking back at it now just looks like quite a willing, hard-working performance. It didn't really do too much in it, but we probably gave him points because of, here he is, spent 30 million on him, please be good now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now it's a bit of a case of, oh dear. So yeah, I think the player of the year and our 3-2-1, we'll see a similar, maybe top five, whether or not the same person comes out on top, I don't know, I'm not too myth that Maxette's Laquar is currently top of 3-2-1. No, I mean, neither. I think, Joe, I think Mattetta, I mean, Mattetta is now trying to join third, and I think he will be challenging again, I think. I think Laquar, it's Laquar, Henson, Sarhius at the top four at the moment. I'm hoping, I am hoping, and it won't be through nefarious ways that the Aset does end up there as well. But what's your prediction for our 3-2-1 champion? Ooh. I don't think it would be Mattetta. I think it will likely be, we've had to really kind of think about putting in four for this week's points because of the nature of his performances, it's not necessarily goal scoring as helpful as they've been. True. So it's not as obvious, so maybe there'll be weeks carrying on. Maybe I've said it now so it won't happen, but where we kind of almost just take it for granted. Out of hope, this is hope, I'm hoping for Mike and Alyssa, a second half of the season from Adam Wharton. Ooh, lovely show. And I can see him racking up points pretty quickly if things go our way. It depends, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Absolutely. It does, and I mean, he did very well in 3-2-1 last season, having joined end of Jan, so I could see him drumming home some great performances again. I mean, he's got an extra month here for theory, and I don't think he's going to be fitting time, but I mean, I'm holding on to that Tottenham performance, the Tottenham win, that was Adam Butts peak Adam Wharton. Yeah. And even we got a flash of it at Villa Park in a cut before he went off. For a minute, sure. Yeah, he, that play is still there, and it would make a huge difference to the whole team, I think, when he's in, just in terms of how we attack and create. He can be crowned 3-2-1 winner before he's 75 million per move to Mansa in the summer. There we go. But he's on four points already, so, you know, it's not far off. Let's really quickly preview the Chelsea game. At the weekend, I will say, if you want a more in-depth preview, join our patron, the top two tiers. Geoff Thomas tier, the junior's perennial tier. Get the weekly warm-up show with Alex Futer and Rob Sullivan to where they go into more in-depth preview. But Jack, we will quickly preview that Chelsea game. They have, I've had to say, quietly, less so quietly now, because everyone's talking about it, but they have really become the sort of surprise package of the season. I guess less surprising given the size of their squad, but Enzo Mresca has done a pretty good job there, which isn't easy for Chelsea managers given what goes on there. They are looking very good. I would say probably the best challenge is Liverpool. For the title, I do think Liverpool will be the title wrapped up already. Yeah, I think maybe run away tight. It won't be much of a title charge, but there will be other than Forrest, of course, who I believe in a second. I think they might end this game week, fourth, because Arsenal and Chelsea still got to play. But I've been really impressed with Mresca. I feel a bit of skepticism was about the place in terms of letting Pochettino go and bringing him in. But I think he's done very well. I think he's found his first team, and it has taken some team cringles a period when Enzo Fernandez wasn't in that first team, he's now in that first team. I think Chelsea will end this season with a trophy. They'll probably win the Europa Conference. Is that a third tier one? Regardless of whatever they do this season, I think it's likely that he will end his first season at Chelsea with a trophy. Kind of reminds me of Chelsea in the late 90s, actually, when they were Cupman as Cup and that type of thing. It's starting again, but in certain players, they've got some absolutely wonderful talents. Cole Palmer obviously, the main one. I mean, I say there was too much money. There's no doubt they spent a lot of money on him, but he is now settled and looks very, very good next to another player. They bought for a very long, a huge amount of money, Fernandez. So it's a project. I think that's how the Chelsea fans are being sold it. So right now, they're probably ahead of schedule. Yeah, they'll be very good against us on Saturday, I think. I take a point now, particularly as we won't have Trevor Shannabar at the back. Yeah, I think it will be all right. Yeah, of course. I think it'll be a real test. I'm not expecting too much, although hopefully a good performance, I think would be enough for us going into those other games then later in the month that you highlighted, Joe. I think what's interesting about what Mareska has done is the first Chelsea manager that I can remember that's taken their, you know, laugh a big squad to be able to talk about and split it into two teams for the best in Europe. Yeah, and it's worked really hard. It's such a basic thing to do, but it's so obvious. It's worked really well, and it's kept their league players fresh. And as a result, he's managed to get some really good consistent performance. It's obviously Cole Palmer, we know as a talent, but he's like to have a Levi Colwell, Mark Gurayer, you know, a stop sort of being a laughing stock and has actually put in some good performances. Nicholas Jackson has started to look like a proper striker. He really is getting these performances out of these players, and I really do think they will be a threat come the right end of the table for them. But I think this will be a tough one for us. The lack of chalaba, I guess that means Richards will be in. Mark Gae back from suspension. I think this will be a tricky one for us, but if they can put in the, you know, if we can put in a better performance than the last couple of games, will we have actually picked up four points? And I don't think there'd be two made Palace fans going home unhappy. Yeah, it's about how do we choose to approach this? They've had two negative results recently. I mean, they would have played Ipswich by the time this pod's gone out. We don't know the result of, but they drew up at Everton. Yeah. And then lost at home to Fulham now. There are opponents in those respective games, approach those two very differently, and that's totally fine. It's about which one suits us more. I think Fulham were relentless and kept trying to create chances and were basically trying to match Chelsea. And my concern with that, if we were to do that, I don't think we've got the depth. I think we'll just get overrun in the second half. The amount of players Chelsea have that method of having the A and B team, that conference league is happening so often that they are essentially playing every two weeks. So they are fresh, and when the player is injured in the first team, they actually bring players to step up, and they're basically not coming in cold. So they just have an army of fresh players at the time of year when every squad is desperate for fresh legs. So I think it's going to be really challenging if we're not holding on to something in the first half or have given ourselves something in the first half that we're going to be able to see it out because I just think they'll be relentless Chelsea. That approach in terms of trying to take the one at their own game and fighting fire with fire might be beyond us, barring some very inspired recruitment. Jack's on mute. I think you had a little chime in there. What was that? Oh, yeah. I am on mute. Sorry. I was going to say that bench. The fact they could bring on in Kunku. - Shout Felix. - Shout Felix. - Shout Felix. - Shout Felix was an 80 million pound signing. It's just ridiculous. You've seen worse teams make mince meat of us in second halves with substitutions that are nowhere near that level. And so that concerns me a little bit that they equally the Everton approach to playing Chelsea at home especially as well. We've probably got that for a bit, but I don't know if that would be our manager's approach to a game like this. - So if Mark Gae's back, does Chris Richards just move across to the right-hand side? - I think so. - Yeah. - I think so probably. - Are you at the end of that line? - Yeah. Cline or buy some miracle chatty re-ad thrown in at the deep end, which I don't see happening on that side anyway. Re-ad seems to be the gay side of the three. - Yeah. - Yeah. - A long term, but it's only just getting back. - Just back, yeah. - So, yeah. It's a big call. I would personally still, even now, prefer climbing there to Richards, but maybe that's just me being harsh. - Yeah. - For me, that's the final client's part of the squad now. He's that right side. It's in the half because he was so good. I think he's more capable there now than he was at right-wing back in the second half at the end, but it's a couple of weeks ago. - Oh, good, yeah. - Yeah. - Well, Cline did, you know, going back to the three to one point so early in the week, Cline did get his only points of the season, I think, away at Chelsea earlier this season. So, does that form against them already? I mean, got a good point there. So, it's not beyond the realms of possibility, but it will take a big performance from Palace. So, it'd be interesting to see how that... - Could help, I couldn't help but notice also in the Southampton game. Chris Richards had some heavy strapping on his fire. - Yeah. - So, I don't know how much if he was playing through something or just it's just part of his recovery anyway from an injury, but maybe, you know, a week is enough time perhaps for him to be able to start both, but who knows? - Yeah, I think it might be Cline. I think you guys are convinced me it might be Cline actually, and probably the rest of the team is as is maybe a few more minutes for DiCory off the bench, but another player who turned the game for us at Chelsea early in the season. So, we will see. Guys, I think that wraps up our questions special for this week. Thank you very much to our listeners for their questions. The new year is here. So, hopefully, we'll have more positive things to talk about as we have done last couple of seasons. Cracking on is 2025, but it just remains for me to say thank you, Jack and Joe, for joining Mary New Year. Happy New Year to you. - Do you want to quiz? - Oh, yes. Completely forgot that I was ready to do my sign off, but I'll hold off because if you want it, it's going to be quiz mark. Yeah, of course. - I've just got a second one ready. I've just got a second one ready. - Go on. - 24th of September, 1994. - Oh. - Mr. Palace, Neil, Chelsea, one. - Okay. - I'll give you both. - What year was that? - 94. - 94. - Okay. - September, 94, do you say? - September, 94. - The start of the '94, '95 season. - That's right. - Just come back after the, yeah, just come back after. And as Joe will tell, Ray Hawkins, not available on Pat this that day, because he was not available after day one. - Okay, go on in. - So, what's the rule, Jim? - Let's go back to heading. - Oh, it's a head-to-head, 100%. - Oh, great. - Do you get one? - Let's do one life, yeah. - No. - One life, go on. I think that's a death rate, as you said, last week. - Go on, Jim. You can start again. - Nigel Martin. - Correct. - Ricky Newman. - Ricky Newman. - Oh, he's got big, and he's got it right. - Come on. - Ding on. - Correct. - Simon Roger. - Father of. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Chris Lloyd, unbelievably. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Apparently so. You've used your life, Joe, there is no-- - Oh, well, no Simon Roger. - No Simon Roger. - No Simon Roger. - I am struggling already. I'm going to go... Who would have been up top for us then? Chris Armstrong. - Correct. - Joe needs this to stay in the game. - He needs this to stay in the game. - No, he's got-- - No, he's got-- - Who started? Did I start? - You both get-- I've lost track. - I've lost track as well. Joe has-- Joe can't get one wrong, basically. - Okay. Okay. - George and Dar. - Correct. - Oh. - Oh, that's horrible. - Hold that out the bag. - George and Dar. - There are some names that you would like to get here, Jim and Jay. - Chris Coleman? - Correct. - Okay. - And your say-- September, did you say? - September 1994. - Okay. I'll avoid a million pound teenager. Okay. - What? - How about-- - I was considering him as well. - Darren Pitcher. - I'm afraid, Joe, you've burnt your lives. - Okay. Fair enough. - Jim, did you want to tap it in? You've-- - I was gonna go. Okay. I was gonna try John Humphries, her right bag. - No. - Okay. - Well, think I've won anyway, so-- - You have won anyway. - It's some real names I can tell. - What's Bruce? - What's Bruce died there? I think we were-- - Bruce died came on for-- - Oh, he was already there, right, okay. - He was there. He signed at the end of the '93, '94 season. - Right. - He has absolutely incredible haircut. - Oh, hang on. I just thought-- - I just thought-- - Gareth Southgate. - Gareth Southgate. - Ah. - 'Cause I was just thinking about the end of that season, him lifting the trophy in front of the homestay. - Yeah. He lifted the trophy in front of the homestay. - Yeah. He lifted the trophy in front of the homestay. So the Palace team looks like they played a 5-3-2, Nigel Manengold, Gareth Southgate. I think it sent a half. Darren Paterson would have played right back, I think. - Okay. - Gordon left back, Chris Coleman, Richard Shaw. - Oh, my word, yeah. - midfield, John Slaco, Ricky Newman. - John Slaco. - Brian Launders. - Never had got that. - I was wrong, and in Dye you got Bruce Dye came on. The Chelsea team, just for nostalgia's sake. Dimitri Corrine in gold, defense of Erlen Jonson, Steve Clark, Nigel Spakman, Frank Sinclair, midfield of Eddie Newton, Gavin Peacock, David Rochaussle, it's time at Chelsea. - Wow. - And a guy I've never heard of, Jakob Kildberg, up front, the man who scored the winner in the second half, Paul Furlong, up front with John Spencer. - I don't think I've got any of those. - This is, I can remember my start remembering Palace the season after. - Yeah, I can't trust that. - I was pulling. - I can't make this. - I think it's a good effort though. - Still plucked Darren Pitts around. - Ricky Newman loved it. - I think we just had that, I had that cut run, the game he ate his walls, the screamers. - Oh yeah, Ian Downey's signed later, Darren Pitcher. - Yeah. - And they couldn't see it because he wasn't on it too in that game. - Yeah. - Yeah, disappointing one little defeat that afternoon. - Yeah. - So, there you go. - It's not a vintage Palace team, is it? - No, but some great names in there, but not a great team. - Right. - Yeah, kind of emblematic of that season really. Should have done a bit more. - Yeah. - But the score doesn't look that great. Brian Launders, I wonder if how many appearances he actually made for Palace in the world. - Oh. - Ran the game that he did. - Less-than-dicely-commodable made for Palace. - Let's end on that note. - Let's end on that, anyway. - Thank you guys. Great quiz there, Jack. Thank you very much. This is our sign-off today, it comes from Ross Wilding, who says, "Have a great day and be great." Bye-bye. ♪ - This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [applause] [applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Happy New Year! Jim, Jack and Joe answer your questions on January signings, Trevor Chalobah, Tyrick Mitchell and their half season report cards.
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