Connect to the world with special Turkish Airlines fares. Book your flight before November 30th and take advantage of great deals. Fly to the most exciting destinations with the award-winning airline that flies to more countries than any other. Terms and conditions apply. For more details, visit Turkishairlines.com. Turkish Airlines, widen your world. With Lulu Lemon, the real gift happens when they're living in it. When you give them the softest lounge wear set, the real gift is this. And this. And this. This holiday, Lulu Lemon makes it easy to give a gift that goes beyond. Open the moment. Shop now at lululemon.com. The wrongs. We must write. The fights. We must win. The future we must secure together for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next for all of us. We are Marines. We were made for this. [Music] Hello and welcome to the five-year plan podcast. We have Andy. I like this one and Kevin. Hello. And me. I'm Brian Blessid's. Hello! Who's your name? He's got more of a broadcast voice than that. I've got his name the other one. He enunciates properties. It's an emergency loan that I've been parachuted in. Thank you very much. Parachuted in on some form of embroidery. Yes. Yes. Vector printing. Oh, yes. Oh. That's magical. This podcast is brought to you by Vector Printing. For all your print and embroidery needs, go to vector.co.uk and that's Vector with us. Okay. And then there's also JCIS, the Global Research and Brand Consultancy. From South London, visit JC-IS.com. There we go. There we go. And Rob's hit on a clever device for getting it right. Which JD needs to, he actually read it. Well, yes. Well, I'm trying to remember it in a half-assed way. [laughter] I've written it on a piece of card and Kevin's holding each one up as I go along. We're in a half-class ready. JD also, he's not here, obviously. Oh, no. You can tell. But he wanted us to mention that Vector actually going to be producing two exclusive T-shirts. Just two. Well, yeah. I think that's probably how many-- Two types. They'll be on Sarah's of next week. One of them is a FYP T-shirt with the FYP logo. Nice. And apparently it's really nice. And the other one-- I think they'll only need the print runner two for our ones of EFA. The other one is Vector Printing. Vector Printing one with Vector with a K. Oh, nice. And that's amazing as well. I've not seen either, but I've been sure that they're good. We're paying them to advertise their product. Well, no. The joke's on them because they're going to have to sell them all at the same price. And they're going to order one friend of car, and then all of their text are ordered. It's going to be absolutely great. Yeah, fair point. So I don't have to be vector. They should do a nice little Palace school T-shirt. They should. Because it's been a while. That would be nice. Yeah. On that-- They sound lovely T-shirts. I will certainly-- the Vector with a K one, I think, which is all-- So on that subject, we'll probably go right into what happened at the weekend. Do we have to? I mean, I'd rather just talk about David Bowie again, like we did last week. Oh, that's quite moving, wasn't it? It was, yeah. Look, the thing is, well, depending on what for school tonight, we will probably still be eighth in the Premier League, and we'll be above Chelsea and Everton and Liverpool. So I think some of the hysteria over the weekend on social media is probably a little bit unnecessary, but-- And also, I'm expected to usually expect people on social media to be very-- To be level-headed and sensible about this thing. But even, yeah, we can say we're eighth in the Premier League, so we're blue in the face. There are problems all over the pitch. We've got a problem with the goalkeeper. So much so that the manager publicly criticized him. Back before, suddenly, started leaking goals. The midfield aren't doing enough either end of the pitch, and we can't score. So there are problems. Yeah, but there's no point denying it. I'm downgrading. We're definitely staying up to where we almost certainly probably will stay up. But there's no point. Yeah, there are sometimes fans that are too positive, and we can't just keep saying we're eighth in the Premier League. So it's all fine, because at the moment, it clearly isn't. And I'm hoping-- I haven't got any real octaves of about Tottenham, but I'm hoping that maybe there's a sort of synchronicity when we play Bournemouth again, as it's a bad run, starting against Bournemouth. So maybe we can finish it against Bournemouth. So I mean, looking at each area of the pitch, you kind of covered it in its basic terms. Let's look at Wayne Hennessy. Is that a situation that the party will need to resolve by changing goalkeepers? Or is it one of those kind of moments-- is it one of those decisive moments where he sticks with the goalkeeper that he has and tries to show a little bit? Well, the problem is, at the moment, none of those three are top ten goalkeepers in the Premier League. We've got aspirations to probably finish in the top ten this season, which means that you either have the option of chopping and changing every time one of them makes an error, and they have all made errors. Jules made errors last season. McCarthy came in at the start of this season and did make some errors. Wayne Hennessy has now only made errors that haven't led to goals, but has now made errors that are leading to goals as well. You know, all three of them, I don't think, are quite at that level. So, you then got the option of just waiting until each of them makes that fatal error that leads to a goal and then dropping them and absolutely destroying their confidence. Well, you just stick out with one of them to the end of the season until you're able to find an alternative that is genuinely getting enough for the top half of the Premier League. I mean, there's been talk of Robert Green. I'm not convinced that Robert Green is much of an upgrade, albeit that I think he has a little bit of an upgrade on those three. He's just been linked with Liverpool as well, so I wonder if that's just his age on trying to do this. It may well be, but I mean, again, there was this thing that people were either absolutely leaping on Hennessy to have a go at him about the first goal, which was admittedly a bad error again, or, you know, decrying the fact that anyone would say he had any responsibility for it at all. Palace played bad, and it was a bit like the Chelsea game in some respects. They were in the game for the first half an hour or so, looked OK, but then got steam rolled and eventually because they sort of lost their heads almost. They started making basic errors in their own defensive final thirds. Well, it was exactly as we said last week that City would score eventually, and then we wouldn't be able to get one. That's as soon as we go one deal down, you could see the confidence go at them, you could see them. And then almost they don't know whether it's to sort of go for a damage limitation, because they know they're not going to score. Which I think do you try and lose one deal, or do you at least flood forward and get beaten for? To me, it looked like once we were two-nil down, it was almost like we tried to go a little bit gung ho. And then, I mean, you look at the final goal, the fourth one for them, that was purely because we were all out attack. You know, we were all, which at three-nil down is really a bit of a pointless exercise unless you're playing Liverpool. But I just think that it's one of those situations, I guess, with Hennessy. I think the criticism after the Villa game was justified, it was a ridiculously stupid error. Against Man City, again, it was basic, I think that that should have been a save that he should have made. But is it fair to suggest that had that mistake not happened, we would have continued to play as well as we had done up until that point, and that we would have got a result? So, I guess that's just, I think we're so lacking in resilience at the moment. I find it difficult to really sort of hypothesise that in the absence of Hennessy making that error, it just wouldn't have been someone else making a similarly basic error, leading to a goal, and then the floodgape's opening again. We don't look at the moment for whatever reason, I think there's a multitude of reasons. We don't look like we've got that resoluteness that we have perhaps two or three months ago, where we actually believed that we were going to keep clean shoots and we actually believed that we would stop even the top teams from scoring. It was almost, I was watching again, there was almost when Hennessy made that mistake an error of inevitability, not because Hennessy himself made the mistake, but just because he kind of filled up Palace and looked a little bit brittle at them and a little bit fragile, I think it would have come elsewhere. I think the thing is as well, though, with the back four, is if they haven't got confidence in Hennessy, it's going to affect the way they play. They're going to sit deeper, they're going to try and stop crosses coming in rather than defending the way they defended before when we were quite happy for crosses to go in our box and we'd get them away. I'd be amazed if he didn't drop him on. He's made more errors now than McCarthy did, to be fair, and a lot of you say they are costing goals. I mean, it's a difficult one, but as you say, what do you do? Do you keep trying to up his confidence by letting him let a goal in every way? I don't know, but I think the public criticism for me was surely a prelude to dropping him. But I think, as you say, it's something we need to rectify in the close season because they're all decent enough keepers. I think Julian, he's probably our best goalkeeper at the moment, but I don't think he'll be the option if he drops Hennessy, he'll be McCarthy. But we do need a top Premier League goalkeeper, but it's not just, and you can't even say that Hennessy is infecting the rest of the team. There's something wrong. It's interesting to make mine as a Newcastle fan pointing me towards one of their sites yesterday, and it's basically, we told you, Palace Francis will happen. It plays into the hands of all those people who say it always happens with Pardee, he loses five six games in a row, or he gets bored after 18 months, but I don't think that's the case. I just think, as Andy says, we're being found out a little bit, we're finding out we're actually finding a real level in this division. Do you think that, I guess, the next part of that critical look at our team is our midfield. Has that been affected by the loss of Yannick Balassie, in that it kind of destabilises our attacking approach from that midfield area? And you end up having to then drag a player like Punch and who was doing quite well in a attacking kind of, well, people will say that he hasn't been. But personally, I think he did an OK job for most of the season in that kind of, you know, deep-lying number 10 kind of role. As a result, we then end up with having to put either MacArthur or Cabay in the central role. Does that play a part as well in that we've kind of lost that stability in terms of just across the pitch in the attacking third? Well, even when he was playing at number 10 this season, I'm not sure Punch and looked like the player he was last season. We've discussed it ad nauseam in previous podcast, so it was almost sort of no point in going back to the same subject. I guess the question is, is it right to have Punch and on the wing then in that case? Because it's better than any of the other alternatives, frankly, when Balassie's out. And I mean, we mentioned last week quite what a worry it is that if you take one player out of that team, all of a sudden, they look utterly impotent. But that was kind of, you know, proven to be the case. I've lost sort of four or five matches with Balassie out of the side. The team hasn't looked like it has any sort of attacking impetus. He's out for another four weeks as well. Three weeks within three. I think it's worth pointing out that even with Balassie and the team, we weren't scoring it back full of goals. But while he was there and looking at it, I think we pretty much unchanged for six, seven, eight games. While Yannick was there, it was a very quite rigid formation that the players stuck to and obviously knew very well. And that worked for us. And now just taking one element out of it, it's just kind of, it's rocked to the whole shape and the whole system. He hasn't been able to find a similar replacement for him and we haven't got the same energy and he is that get-out ball. But losing one player shouldn't be causing this. I mean, the thing, Chelsea and City, on paper, you'd go, a lot of teams are going to lose three-year or Chelsea. And then Chelsea draw home to West Brom and don't look particularly good team. A lot of teams will lose, I think most of us will, we cherish that idea that we weren't going to get hammered by anybody. And now we've got eight goals in three games. But the winner one was the worst one. That was the one that really sets alarm bells ringing because there's simply, if we beat in the winner, and we were on 34 points, and then we'd all be going, well, we lost to Chelsea City, that's fair enough. We lost to two teams that are better than us. But that villa result is the one that makes you think, well, if they are a poor Premier League team and we, by all accounts, were just abject for 90 minutes and gave away a comedy goal. That's the one that fills you with a bit of worry. And the fact is it simply doesn't look like we're anywhere they bring in anyone in. It looks like they're going to limp on with the squad they got. And the squad we got, it's one of those up and down arguments we had all the way through the first part of the summer, and the first part of the season rather, because we'd go one week, say it's quite a good squad, next week we'd say it's not good enough and it's not good, it clearly isn't good enough. So I guess that brings us on to the topic of the final, you know, the final third. Is that, again, against Manchester City, it's probably not entirely fair to say that it's kind of Wiccan's fault? You know, that we don't have the depth up front, that obviously is clear. Man City probably, as I say, that's not a great example to use because of the kind of team you're playing in that situation, but against a team like Aston Villa. Is it because we don't have the attacking presence, or is it because we're not creating enough? Is it a mix of the two? You can't blame, you can't buy a player who's known for not scoring goals in the Premier League and have the manager say we haven't bought it for his goals. He's there for his link, I'll play. You can't blame him if he doesn't score goals. But we said this last week, there's no creativity coming from midfield. That's why, you know, Shelby made two goals for Newcastle one, Saturday. And he's a sort of player, we should be looking at as much as a striker. And then Charlie Austin goes for 4 million quid, which makes you wonder, because apparently it was 15 million quid, was he asking price, that was slapped on him when we were interested, or not interested, depending on who you believe in the club. But you can buy as many strikers as you want, but without decent crosses or without decent passes from midfield, they're not going to score goals, and that's not happening. Even when Balassie was playing, you know, again, it's another perennial subject on the pod, the quality of crossing was just, was put all the way through for both Will Van Balassie. So that needs to be addressed as well. There's also slight tactical rigidity to us, and we've said it before. When that entire first level fit, you knew exactly which 11 players were starting, you knew exactly the approach they were going to try and go for, you knew if it came off how it was going to end up pounding now, then it would sometimes work. But the problem is, the more you get into a season, the more teams have started to get used to the fact that Conor Wickham's going to play in a certain way in that system, the more they become used to certain balls being played in, played him from Cabayeta, the wingers at certain times, the more they're used to just setting up in a certain way, and more importantly, the more tired the players get. If you're playing the same system week in week out and the same players week in week out, they're just not going to be able to maintain that level of performance and intensity over 38 games, and it's all about options, right? And it just seems that while we had that wonderful plan A when it was working probably about six weeks ago, you need sometimes more than that. You need to sometimes be able to adapt how you're going to approach games. You sometimes have to, you know, not just take a back-to-the-wall kind of approach away from home in hope that every single time you're going to be able to ensure that men are throwing their bodies on the line and that you're able to get one or two against the run of play, because sometimes it doesn't happen, and then you end up on these sort of gold routes and not scoring and the sort of corresponding underperformance regression to the main thing that we're talking about. So, I mean, it's, I think there's a hugely overstated thing from Newcastle fans where they say that Pardew is completely tactically inept and doesn't know what he's doing. He can't set up a football team and he can't. I mean, there's a huge amount of vested interest in that being true so far as Newcastle fans are concerned, and it's not true, but he does need to become a little bit more of that, so if he's going to have really pushed Palace on into that top eight like he wants to, and like he thinks he's capable of doing, he needs to work out what the alternative routes to winning football matches are, because it can't always be setting up. Connor Wickham with Punch & Plan A-10, Zaha Wan, side Balassie, are the Cabine McArthur at the Basement Field, Dan Delaney, Sware Ward, and one of the three keepers, and that's pretty much what it's been for the entire autumn and early winter period, and it needs, you know, not necessarily just new faces, but also needs new ways of approaching football matches. So, this is... Pardew, but Pardew is clearly, it's clearly a good manager, and this interest in what Street says there, because on this Newcastle site, I think it's called the Meg, again, they made a lot of play about him only, he's got a Plan A and that's it. But he is clearly a good man, I think what Pardew had argued is this is not quite yet his team, he's only had what's his second full transfer window, he's got... And he would say, well, he hasn't got the players to come up with different alternatives, because they simply aren't good enough. Who do you look at on the bench to be, you replace Wickham with Shamak? Is it worth it? Or you get Klyker, or what do you do? So, these are things that need addressing the gold route, we haven't scored goals in the Premier League since we got promoted. I think it's not just Pardew, it's been a culture at the club, it's been... we've had successive managers who, basically, their tactics are to try and nick wins, and Pulis' tactic was to nick draw, so you've still got a lot of players with the Pulis mindset, so it will take time to change. I think it was also obvious that when we were going through this run, Pardew was trying to kind of manage expectations a little, in that he... you know, I think there is a fair argument that we have been overachieving, and that, you know, I think Andy touched on it in the last podcast, that we are... there's an element of regression, but that's almost to be expected. And Pardew seems to have always done that, Pardew seems to have always over-performed parts of the season, and then you get the corresponding under-performance. It's a fair point, but both Pardew and Steve Parrish have been quite bullish. And when we were fifth, they were both talking about Europe, they were both talking about kicking on, so there was no real noises from the club saying, "Hey, on a second, we're having a particularly good run. We're going to hear that as well." It was mainly Palis fans who looked at Pardew's record, and we've always said he tends to lose his games in batches. And it's the first... Oh, it's not the first blip, is it? Because we had two seasons of blip. But this is really a part of season one. This is probably Pardew's first rocky patch, isn't it? Yeah, without a doubt. But even then, it's only the villa result, really. Because you'd take a... Yeah, you look at Bournemouth, and the way draw there is not particularly bad result. Swansea is not a good result, but we beat Southampton in the car. So, Villa, as a... If you're being really objective about it, the only really, really disastrous result was the villa one, except, of course, we didn't play away against Chelsea, but in terms of result, only one of them has been disastrous. But, clearly, things need to be addressed, because, at the moment, they don't look like the 11 players that we've got that would normally start, including Yannick. They don't look capable of stepping up and reverting back again. They look like they need freshening up in some way, shape or another. How do Palace do that? What do we... I mean, are we... There's lots to talk about a striker, but is it a midfielder that we also need? You know, they mentioned Don Joe Shelby. It might be as easy as getting a lucky goal in the first half against Tottenham, or a late win against Bournemouth, and then everything's hunky-doring as a bit of confidence. Then we go into a run of games against teams that we'd probably be expected to win, and then we'll all look back on this with great fondness and say, "What happened there then?" But what can't be allowed to happen is that we'd lose our home to Tottenham, and then, because then we'll be really nervous before the Bournemouth game, and then suddenly Bournemouth got as many points as we have. And that then starts to affect the play, because we won't be playing with as much freedom, because we will be looking over our shoulder. So it needs an opinion above. What the answer is, I don't know, because I was amazed that Shelby went to Newcastle a lot to ask, because I really thought all the stars were aligning for that one. It's clearly an area that I can't imagine that Shelby wouldn't have come to us rather than Newcastle given the choice, not because of any difference in quality of the teams, but simply because of where he's from and his background and his relationship with Paju. So clearly we didn't go in for him. Addy Byall looks like he's going to Villain, and despite what Paju said, we weren't interested in him in the first place. But the Addy Byall one was the one that you think, "Well, that's a no-brainer, in a sense." He won't be that the club long enough to disrupt it. He's a Premier League striker, he's big, he's strong, he's fit. The crowd will be lifted. But clearly, either they've decided to muddle on, or they've been very canny, they're not releasing any hints at all to the Brisbane, from what I can gather to the people at the club. There's nothing on the radar at all. There was some suggestion with Addy Byall that the concern was that he's not quite, you know, that he's going to be a three-week-to-four-week project where he really isn't up to fitness. He's fit enough to come up last. In part because he was training with Watford and apparently then decided that he was going to go back to, you know, back to Togo, sorry. That's right. Back to Togo to train there. And you can't expect a player to just train to the, you know, it's like working from home, you're not always going to work as hard as you would. Exactly, Rob. No, I'm talking about you, Andy. You can't, he's a big flamboyant player and a proven Premier League goalscorer. And sometimes it's not necessarily on the pitch where the change is made. It's on the training ground. It's in the dressing room where somebody does come in with a bit of attitude, a bit of spark. And it lifts everybody else. And as Kebai seemed to do at the start of the season, then Kebai's another issue because we're just not getting enough out of him creatively at the moment, in the system we play. But we clearly, we... Up to you. Whoever we get in as a goalscorer, if we do get a goal, there's going to be so much pressure on it. I think... It's almost unfair. It's also worth just saying, the frustration right now is understandable. And this idea that we sign a striker and suddenly everything will be great. It's not realistic. Especially if you're signing someone from abroad. There's a chance that will work, but then you look at the examples of players that haven't. Ronde on West Brom signed for a lot of money, hasn't really made great strides. There have been examples like Mateja Kesman, the fanball swing club. They're talking about... They're talking about... And these are players from the United States as well. You're talking about a variety of players from very different leagues. And it's about... As much of it is about luck and about chance for that kind of... That player to kick on. So I guess... And the other thing as well is that, you know, for all this stuff about they're not being much media about media coverage, about players' palace might be signing. How many of us really knew about Kebai until about a week before it happened? Like three days before it happened. You know, it's one of those things where palace, I think, tend to be quite quiet. No one knew about Connor Wicken when we signed him. I think there's also an element. Kebai is the outlier. If you look at palace's strategy generally, they're very much focused on effectively exploiting imperfect markets where you basically get players who are undervalued by teams or who are sort of being cast aside by teams or who are misfits. They're all sort of moneyball approach almost. And the higher you go up in the league, the harder it is to find players from that sort of background who are going to be good enough to adapt to the top eight of the Premier League. It's fine. If you want to finish 17th in the Premier League, there's a plethora of footballs out there who are going to be good enough, who haven't been thought quite good enough by other teams, perhaps erroneously, who can come in and do a great job. Look at Shamak in our first season and a half in the Premier League. Fitted that mould absolutely, perfectly. But because of the sort of modus operandi that you've now got and the type of player that you now need, it becomes a lot more difficult to reconcile those two things. So effectively, you're hopefully trying to look for one or two things. You're building a scouting network that's sort of sophisticated enough and has a wide enough reach to be able to find players like Igalo from effectively, you know, Nigeria and from places that don't have particularly built up leagues and really catch these guys young, but that has all the sort of connotations that some fans don't like anyway. Or you're building up your youth system with enough infrastructure spending to bring through the next crop of, you know, South Londoners. There was a really good article not that long ago by Barney Roene about this whole generation of South Londoners who've come through. Some of them have come through Palace's Academy, but a lot of them haven't. And there's a huge pool of talent in South London that could potentially be, you know, the next generation or Premier League footballers. But it's going to take time and it's also going to take investment in that element of the club. And to be honest, I would rather that we trod water around the mid-table area and didn't spend the shed load of cash on bringing in a zart or bringing in a slimani or bringing in a baba cart. If it means we can plow enough money into the academy and into the development of that area that we can start bringing three players like Southampton do. It's not easy, but that would be much easier. The academy rules is also a very brave one because it's easier for Southampton to do that when they're in League one and the championship. In the Premier League, the fans aren't as forgiving towards young players as they perhaps would be if you were in a championship. And, you know, we see managers like Puneless who point blank refused to play youngsters in the Premier League because he said it was just too difficult potentially too damaging for them. Paju said in public, he said it at the play of the year, since he wasn't entirely enamored at Newcastle's transfer policy and not having a dressing room full of League one from France players wasn't always a brilliant idea. And we've seen it with Villa, Sherwood brought in, I think, seven or eight French players, although after city wasn't his decision. So I think that's not a model Paju wants to go down. And also I think we shouldn't forget as well that in terms of wages, the big TV money hasn't arrived yet. That's next season. So we're still not in a situation where we can compete weight-wise, even with somebody like Southampton. And also we've got a chairman who quite rightly isn't, you know, Kebai is a one-off, but we've got a chairman who isn't prepared to talk stupid figures for every single player that he's offered, which is why I think we lose some. So I didn't agree with Andy, I think the club, I don't understand what Rob's saying about sometimes there aren't any rumours. But I think I wouldn't be surprised if we don't bring any money. And I wouldn't be surprised if they take a calculated gamble that, you know, when the Sun will come out and we'll win a few more games, and we will finish top 10 and everyone at the end of the season, I think would be happy with that. And then see what happens in the summer when more money's coming in and see what we can do and who we bring in. But the point is, I think we need to accept, there's a certain emotional attachment from Palace fans to this side because we still have players like Delaney who got us promoted, players like Dan who came out of the championship. We're still cling to this idea that we're a plucky, self-london underdog type team. And that's lovely and I really like that and we need to retain that. But the fact is that if we want to push on what everyone talks about, then five or six of these players won't be in the team next season. It's as simple as that. So you can either take emotion and identity and mid-table or you can accept that the better players that we bring in will stay with us for two years and they move somewhere else. And on that note, we're going to wrap up part one. We're going to wrap up part one. Plenty positive. To wrap from the Premier League, I think it's a testament to how well we did earlier in the season that even with dropping points left and right and centre, we are 8 from the Premier League. It's also worth saying that against City, despite it wasn't a villa-esque performance. No, no, and the club have been at pains to point out. I spoke to Terry Biford yesterday. They said everyone was relatively upbeat on the way back before they played. They played really well for half now, and they've redeemed themselves somewhat with the performance. And they've got one of the top two number nines in the world. They've got £50m winger on one side, £40m impound, ginger lad on the other side. You know, it's a team's back collective value. How many times have we said this? We sit this every week against teams. How many of their starting level would get in our team and how many of ours would get in theirs? I mean, you still laugh. I mean, the first time we played them in the Premier League, when they were announcing their team, and then announcing ours, you just have to laugh the quality of the players they've got. So there's no debt. That wasn't a four-year-old. It was a defeat and not an unexpected one. So it's not entirely doom and gloom. It's a bit of doom and a bit of gloom, but not entirely. Nine more than the last 25 years, I think. Right. And by the way, before the person who tweets every week, I talk too much, there's only three of us this week. And he's a lawyer, so he charges us every time he speaks. So you deal with it. Listeners should really listen to the length of you talking with... Before I've got all the defamatory stuff out, just saying. Oh, that's a big deal. Let's just wrap it up there. Speak their wish. Oh. Well, yeah, get to the break. I've got a really good one. Join us in part two, where we're going to cover some of the questions we want to see. And welcome back to the Five Year Plan podcast. Yay! This podcast is brought to you by Vector Printing. For all your printing embroidery needs, go to vector.co.uk and that's vector with us. And JCIS, the Global Research and Brand Consultancy from South London, visit JC-IS.com. And don't forget your vector with a K, T-shirts. That's right. And FYP T-shirts, which are amazing. You've definitely seen them, aren't you, Robert? Yeah. I've helped them in my very own hands. They really are amazing. So you're vector with a K, but the K was embroidered. That would be good. That would be good. Yeah. I'm going to get JCIS T-shirts just to be difficult. Do they even do T-shirts? Well, they will. I'm going to ask Vector to print JCIS and a T-shirt. Yeah. So JCIS is my favourite FYP sponsor. And if I'm paying the pie, then I'll get to call the tune. Make sure it's embroidered. In your face, Vector. Yeah. I will do. So here we are. We've got to the point where we've got people submitting questions. I've got a question. What's your question? What proportion of them were negative? That's a good question. Not that many, actually. Because I'm firing negative questions, unlike other podcasts. Yeah. Well, I always wonder every week when JD goes, "Thanks for your questions, they're all braided, but I'm going to go to read out four." That's his way of telling us the other... To be a bit different, I'm going to read out three. How about that? The questions have been asked. So questions have been very good and very constructive. I think it's typical that you're going to find a few questions about transfers. Yeah, of course. The first one is from Ben Allen. Hi, Ben. And he says, "Is signing a striker on loan or short deal only pushing the problem into the summer where we already need three or four players?" I think, yes. I think we've sort of touched on that. It's a very... It's a very good question. It depends, I suppose, on the quality of the striker you sign. If you bring in somebody of proven quality, you can get you six or seven goals between now and the end of the season. You'd say that was a good... But I don't think that sort of players out there. And I think Andy said last week, if they were, why would a club loan them to us anyway? And I think Andy suggested that they probably will wait to make a permanent solution. I mean, unless you can find effectively the Neil Warnock of Strikers, i.e. a stop gap until you're chosen sort of candidate that is available, and perhaps we're just going to scout Babakar until he's 72. I don't know how many. There's about six windows in the row now, I've been scouting him. I mean, just to really make sure. Really, it's like when I first wanted to buy an iPad and I went into Curry's about 18 times in a row and two different days just to check it. They seem to be doing that with Babakar repeatedly. Just buy the guy. If you're watching him that much, and if you're still interested in him that much, surely you should just buy the bullet. But that's, as an aside, I mean, we'll need some sort of faces you would have thought till the end of the season, even if it is someone on loan, even of low quality, because Shammack's not going to be fit, Gail and wicking between them seem to like getting injured every now and then. And... I don't think you'll pick Gail even if he's fit. Well, no. Well, if it's against Man, you're not that long ago, I suppose. But I mean, I don't see either of them staying fit for a protracted run of games. So if there is a sort of stock gap solution, I wouldn't be surprised if we sort of tried to pursue that route. But I mean, you do wonder whether or not they're going to bite the bullet on. Sort of one of these high profile strikes that seems to have been scouting for quite a while, because this talk about, as we said in the previous part, and we've said in previous pods, Slim Arnie, Zaza or Babakar, these names, keep on coming up and keep on coming up. So you do wonder, you know, what the sort of value is in waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. It might drive the price down, but it might just open up the possibility for one of these guys to go elsewhere. And if you prepare to spend the money, you know, ultimately, if you buy one of these players a little bit earlier in the January window and almost say to yourself, look, we're probably standing in the Premier League and it gives him a period to bed in so that he's ready to go next season rather than buying in the summer window and then he's able to bed in over the autumn. The thing is clubs quite understandably don't really want to let you have a player on spec, so to speak. So you can sort of take them on a test drive for free ones to see whether or not you want to buy them. And the fact is, logically, players that you're getting on loan are out of favour of the clubs and are not potentially not likely to be the answer to the solution. You know, Somalia, for example, who Arsenal fans still can't believe that we took him off their hands. In a way, you're almost better at looking for somebody from a large division English club who might be able to get your card. I just think in terms of just getting a bit of different energy into the club, a couple of different faces in the dressing room might just help everybody else. It puts people on their toes, it makes more competition for places. So, you know, is it time to take a look at Johnny Williams? I don't know. Look at some of the players in the squad that we have got. It doesn't sound like Pigeon. It doesn't sound like Pigeon. It doesn't sound like Pigeon. But again, and we've talked about this before, it is an option with 15 minutes. You know, it's driving at the heart of the defence. It's a different sort of midfield player. We talk about plan B and plan B, plan C. There's a sort of midfield player which simply haven't got. I mean, it would be lovely to get someone in, but it's no point thinking that we're going to get somebody into all school ten goals between. I've basically got to the position, right? Well, I've said in my head, and I've become comfortable with the fact that we're not bringing anyone else in. So, if we don't bring anyone else in, I won't be disappointed. They won't come. Yeah, it's just going to be a really pleasant surprise and I'll get very drunk. But if we don't, I'm just going to go, well, that's normal. This is a January window. We've got to the end. We've signed Kevin Doyle on loan again. Brilliant. Right. So, I'd suggest to sort of list that. Show me Obies back at available. Well, I mean, apparently he was great around the training ground. Yeah. The window should be three days. Yeah. I don't understand the list. Let all the deals happen. If we're going to sign somebody, we've already missed five games in January that a new signing would have been really useful for. Yeah. We might have nicked us a goal against Villar. We might have done something against Villar. We might have saved a goal against Villar. You never know. We've all got something against. I can't remember which ones he was issuing. I know it wasn't. It's 28 from there. So, let's cut that one there. That was a really good question. We want to make sure we kind of spread out more than three questions on our JD. Another question is from James. His Twitter handle is the second suitor. Oh, hi, James. He says... How's suitor spelled there? Sui-t-o-r. Oh, nice. He says, "With talk of propensity for bad runs, for part with Pardee." He's already got my interest with a long word. Can you name a palace manager that hasn't had bad runs? Isn't that just part of football? Oh, that's a fair point. That is a fair point. It's a very fair point, actually, James. But there is... I mean, Pardee came... It's one of the parts of the Pardee myth when he loses all his games in one batch. So, I think we're sort of playing into that a little bit. But, yeah, let's be fair. The first two seasons and then Premier League started with... That's basically a four-month bad run, didn't it? So, yes, that's a very fair point. And, at least with Pardee, you didn't know that you were getting a corresponding good run where it was with Warnock and Holloway. You didn't even get that. Obviously, it's a bit difficult now in this sort of split between people who either hate Pulis or look at him in a misty-eyed fashion. But people have to remember that even in that season where we did stay up on the Pulis, there was still a little bad run that commented in that sort of Swansea draw. And we weren't sure for quite a while if we weren't actually going to start. We did push on and then put string together some wins towards the end of the season, putting together a good run. But there were bad runs, too, on him. So, it's an entirely fair point. Unless you're a top-four team who blazed their way into the Champions League by being consistent all season, then every team has bad runs. The story of this Premier League is that that one's really doing that for starters, which is partly why we're still late. Also, don't forget we had that little spell on the Pardee, West Bromhole, where we lost two home games, played abjectly in both of them. And, also, let's not forget, two weeks ago in the Sunday Mirror, Andy Dunn was arguing that Pardee should be England manager. So, he's clearly, he is a good manager. He's the best manager we've got. He's a manager who knows the Premier League. So, it's almost, it's kind of interesting to see how he manages his way out of the situation, because if Walnut was the manager or Holloway was the manager, you'd kind of go, "Well, that's it, we're done, they can't get us out of this." I'd drink a lot more Guinness if they were. Well, yeah, we would, but you know, and you're right to an extent about Pulus as well, because you kind of think, if Pulus teams get it right, you kind of think that's interesting. But, with Pardee, we know that we've got a manager that most teams in the Premier League would be happy with, who's got a good team around him. So, he will, I'm confident that he will manage us out of it, which is why I'm not panicking the way I would have done it. And also, it's not through luck that we got. I mean, if we were having this conversation in September, you'd be worried, but it's more than halfway through the season, we didn't get 31 points by luck. I think it's worth going on to another question. That was a really good question from James. David Fraser. He says, "At what point does the current run of form become a concern, and can we still rule out a relegation battle?" Oh, come on, we've only got to get nine points for him. I think we'd have to have a worse run of form than Aston Villa have for the start of the season. It's one of those things where... We're not going to win more games this season. There's no doubt about that. We are eighth in the Premier League. One of the teams in the bottom three might have a miraculous recovery. I don't think that's going to be the case, and we will get points. I think the Bournemouth game is starting to become... I think it's not so much do we get in the relegation battle, but how are we going to next season? Basically, because if we end up 15th, 16th after, and he's scraping together four more wins this season, when at one stage, not long before Christmas, we were talking about 65-70 points, and possibly we were getting carried away, and I think we talked about that. But if we end up with 44-45 points rather than 60 points, then you go into the next season in a much worse shape. It's harder to recruit players, so it's more about getting impetus and positivity. And also, don't forget the extra money you get for each league play. But no, renegation, I generally don't. And a lot of people took me to task. I think people will get fidgety, though, if it's a sort of team or losses. Well, I think that's the fair question. The things we've got three home games coming up as well. And the home game, the home form is something we have to improve. Whatever happens this season, the home form has got to be sorted out for next season. There are already Palace fans going out of the aisle. We're doing this because we're concentrating on a cup, which, again, you have to admire the positivity and optimism of some people. But Tottenham, I think Palace fans would take a loss against Tottenham at home, because Tottenham were a really useful team. Anything other than being born with, I think people would really start to get twitchy then, and born with a decent football inside. We've bought three good attacking players in the window and spent a lot of money. So I think that really would get Palace fans. If we end up in the next three games out of the cup and not having one or two home games in the league, I think things will get a bit... It just might be my birthday celebration. It would be, yeah, but things will start to get a bit ugly then, I think. Especially, yeah. Good question again. Not your birthday, so I mean... Oh, yeah. Another question is from a chap called Wayne. Hi, Wayne. And that's on Twitter. That's his name with three exclamation marks. Oh, nice. He's saying that Bruce Dyer's Mrs was on the voice at the weekend. Okay. But she said she doesn't care who Palace or Barnsley are. Should we root for her because of him or not? No. I don't care if she wins the voice. In fact, no, I actively hope she does not win the voice now. When I... I know Bruce Dyer, like... When I was 15 or 14 years old, I went up to Heathrow after Palace played on tour in China. And I was waiting for Bruce Dyer to... Well, all the team to come out from the gate. You went out to Heathrow for that? Yeah, I was a proper goon. I was an autocross book and everything. So I'm stood there with one of my friends and we started talking about who we probably have to get rid of and I think we were in administration at the time. And the subject of Bruce Dyer came up and we were just saying how rubbish he was. You know, shit, we should probably get rid of him. A team comes out. Bruce Dyer walks right over to us and stood next to us with his wife and their two kids. Oh. At which point she told him what we'd said. Oh. Oh, she officially tried to get rid of him. No wonder she said that on the voice. All she's thinking in her head is she's going up to see will I am or what? It's all down to a little kid I saw at Heathrow, but all those years ago. And you're not said that. I would go, "Don't don't care about bars, don't care about pads." Imagine a posh little twat like then asking for an autograph. He told us to fuck off. No one knows. Excuse the language. No one knows she's a grass as well. Yeah. Terrible. Well, I almost said my, even I was going for the autograph. That said, "Yes, you are rubbish, but could you sign this?" No, we're not supporting her. No, I'm definitely not. She can do one. Not that harbor, Grudge. If Jerry Murphy's wife was on. I would definitely support Jerry Murphy's wife. Jerry Murphy Claxon. James Endersby. Oh. He asks, sounds almost like they've got... Very close. It's not quite. No. He asked... He asked... Well, Jackie. He asks, "Are we all too scared to admit?" Avoiding the fact, or avoiding the fact, that Kebai hasn't quite lived up to expectations. I think that's very harsh. I think he has been great. I think he's... And I don't know whether it's because people hadn't perhaps seen him play at PSG. And you remember the Goldsmith's time at Newcastle. I think he's not the sort of player that some people were under the impression that we were going to be buying. You know, he is a destructive defence midfielder. That's where he wants to play. That's what, you know, based on his numbers is what he's good at. I think everyone assumed that we were getting, you know, a complete box-to-box midfielder who was going to score goals and create a bit of havoc in the final third. And I don't think that was ever the type of player that he was going to be. So, I think if that was your, you know, initial perception of what we were getting, then, yeah, you would be a bit disappointed if that wasn't, and perhaps you were sort of not necessarily going into it with a fixed mindset. And perhaps not. But I think that's a very good question because I think a lot of Palace fans feel that way. I understand what Andy said. I thought we would see a bit more of him creatively because I thought I didn't think we'd bought him to be a defensive midfielder, to be perfectly honest. What he does, he does really well. And I think that's become less visible. I mean, certainly in games like the West Brom game where he was just running the whole thing from in front of the back four, where he just kept the ball moving all the time away. Charlie Adam used to do every pass was a good pass, every pass was a forward pass. We saw all the stats about his tackles and his intercepts, but it still didn't quite believe that that's what we bought him for. He's actually very good at his job. It's just a little bit disappointing that that's what his job is. And I think we all thought we were getting maybe a more slightly more defensive Lombardo for one of the better descriptions. So he hasn't quite been a flamboyant player that we thought we were getting. I think we thought we would get a few three kicks from him. Well, he's been a really good player, has vowed out, but it hasn't quite lived up to the expectations, but that's because the expectations were probably misguided. And from my include myself in that, I thought we would be playing him 10, 20 hours further forward than where we have been. I think he is the fulcrum of the team in terms of our midfield presence. And then when you, it's kind of to be expected that when you have a player like that, and then you try and put, you know, perhaps lesser players next to him or surround him with those, to some extent, there's only so much that a player like Kabai can do to lift the quality of the way that we play. You know, you have to provide him with the tools to be able to, you know, to create chances and to have players that he compares to knowing that the ball is not just going to go, you know, run off to one of the opposition players. I think you have to look at where we were before we had Kabai. And I guess the long-term plan for how Kabai can fit in in terms of not just this season, but the season, you know, next season and the season after that, him playing defensive midfield to some extent. I think it's just because he's getting a bit older, he's a little bit less mobile. But he has so much quality when he is on the ball that he can do everything else. Well, I thought it was very, I mean, he has value in a different way because, as Scott Down said, he wanted to stay at Palace because we've got Kabai. He'll certainly help to attract other players to the club. But I thought it was telling after we scored the goal against Southampton, which is one of the best team goals we scored this season, really, with the ball forward to Balassie, that Pardieu was laughing about Kabai being so far forward, and Southampton was the last thing they expected was to him to be bursting into the box. The last thing anybody expected, he joked about actually having a word with him after saying that's not what you're there for. But I think a lot of us, myself included, thought that was more of the sort of thing we would be getting from Kabai. And I think, maybe right, maybe it's age, maybe it's fitness, he doesn't take as many opportunities to get forward as... I think he wants to go in that position as well. Oh, no, he does, it's quite obvious. He's made it plain, and that's where he wants to play. But then you'd kind of hope that given that platform in front of the back four, that that would release other players to be more creative or to make the sort of runs we talk about, Johnny Williams doing, and that we've only really seen McArthur do against Newcastle. Final question. Yeah, it was a really good question. It does articulate what a lot of Palace fans have been starting to stay, because I think it also represents the fact that we're a club that's a massive signing for the set amount of money, it's a big amount of money. And I think you always assume you want to see, you know, it's like you spend it on an extension, you want to see your extension basically. So I think that's what he reflects, but yeah, he's a good question very much. Kieran Ramdewar is asking, if we ended between 10th and 12, would that be such a bad thing? I think we're probably about between the 10th and 12th best team in the league. You look at all the sort of nerdy stats things that I've been talking about for sort of weeks and weeks and weeks and how we've been performing up to this stage and sort of expected goals and all those sort of metrics. And we have been between sort of 8th and 12th on sort of different people's views of things. I think that's probably right. And anywhere within that window is going to be a good achievement, because, you know, you can have what happened to Palace at the end of the PULA season where all of a sudden you go on a bit of a hot street right at the end of the season and you push up arguably higher than you perhaps deserve to be in terms of the overall quality of the league. That can happen. I personally wouldn't be too adverse to that, but I think it's almost analogous to the last question in some ways. You know, people have expectations and expectations get inflated by certain things. And the expectation was that you'd be a certain type player. When things have been a little bit different from that, it then leaves some people a little bit at this point. When you have a team that pushes on towards 5th at a very early stage in the season because they got on a hot street because they've ever performed, inevitably fans are going to think, you know, now we can start to dream. Now we can start to think that we can finish in the top six so that when you then actually end up regressing to the main and going back to probably what is your rightful position, people do end up a little bit peeved. Do you think that the Leicester City example is kind of playing a part in that? That people are saying, "Look at them, why are they doing as well as they are and we're not?" I mean, Leicester is a really interesting one because just as a friend of mine pointed out, I've been predicting that the transfer bubble will burst for the last 20 years and I've been predicting that Leicester's bubble will burst for the last. I think it does kind of make other teams go, "Well, why can't we do that?" And I think the thing is that player for player, we're probably as good as Leicester. It's amazing. It's interesting because Andy talked earlier about other teams coming to grips with us and learning how to play this, but they don't seem to have done that against Leicester, albeit they're struggling for goals a little bit. All the other things out there. Sorry. Thank you. So, would we have taken test at the start of the season yet? Of course we would. I mean, avoiding relegation was the important thing this season, so we're there next season. It is just because we had that brilliant spell, the wheel dared to dream. It also, it depends on how we play for the rest of the season as well to an extent. I think if we've finished 10th but with some good performances and maybe seeing Kai Kai play for a couple of games and we go into the next season full of hope, but we've also talked about it will be terribly disappointing if Palace fans were to think we've had a bad season because we've finished 10th. Because we did get carried away. We joked about getting into Europe. We're not, we're behind West Ham, we're behind Tottenham, we're ahead of Watford, we're ahead of Bournemouth. That's where we have to be realistic about where we are. But we also have to be realistic about the fact that we've stayed in the Premier League and we will stay in the Premier League and we've got the resources and the investment to push on. That's the important thing, but I don't think this little dose of reality is a bad thing in a way. I don't think there's a couple of cold water thrown in the face, but I think it helps put our feet on the ground and be a bit more realistic about where we are, but it still doesn't mean we shouldn't lose the optimism that we've had for this season about upcoming seasons. I think we're still very much on an upward curve and we're a club that's going to attract better players and it will take two or three seasons before we're sort of looking to get into Europe. I think we will be, I think we will be challenging for Europe in two or three seasons of time, and that's actually important. That's a positive, isn't it? Yeah, and also you have to look at the stability of the picture as well, which is something we haven't had for a long time. We're in a tractive proposition, you know, and we're getting a new stand, we're getting a washing brush up everywhere. And I'm not going to say, as I know it annoys a lot of people twice, because when I say where we were five or six years ago. I'm still in your front room. Yes, I know you were in a different front room, yes. I'm not going to say that, but clearly this is still a good time to be a Palace fan. But I think there will be some Palace fans who will moan if we finish 10 for 12. But that's what I think... Almost what part do you and Paris asked for, and you know, expectations do change, and that's where we are now. And it's right, I mean, 10 for 12 is probably where we are, and 10th in the most demanding football league in the world, isn't a bad place to be, really. And the thing is as well, just a very quick point on Leicester, because I know people will have their sort of expectations almost inflated by the Leicester Experiences season. There haven't been that many games where Leicester haven't had Mars, Vardy and Cantay, all fit, all wearing to go, all being able to demonstrate 100% intensity. You take two of them out of the team because they're injured. You know, then they start to regress a little bit. Once teams start getting used to the manner of which Ranieri set them up, which is a slightly more recent phenomenon than Pargy's setting us up, because obviously Pargy's been in situ at Palace a bit longer than Ranieri has at Leicester. You know, there'll be a bit of a regression there, too, so people probably need to not get too carried away by Leicester. A draw at Villa was a bad result for them as well, and before the Cup game had taught them, they were struggling to score. So yeah, I mean, I think it has kind of changed the perception of fans of lower clubs, but yeah, West down fans, we say, well, if Leicester can do that work, can't we? Liverpool and Everton fans will be saying that Leicester can do that work, aren't we? I think the thing is, if you were to ask me who I think will finish hiring a lead table next to you, Palace or Leicester, I'd say Palace, because I can't see this being anything other than one off from Leicester's point of view. That's a great point to wrap that up on. So we're now going to go to Palace on this day, which I think is JD's regular thing now, isn't it? It's his favourite thing, it's only goes up to two years later. That terrible parody songs and speech impediments. Oh, and the haircut. And the haircut, I think. He can't say anything. But he'll be listening to this side, JD. Literally drifting off halfway through a sentence. Yeah. Like the door mouse in the mad hat is too fine. He should live in a teapot, surely. He's got the demeanor of a manager. Well, it's like a man who does live in a teapot, frankly. And also what I like about on this day is that the book only goes up to 2008, so anything that happens in this week after that. You're not hearing about it. Because there's no sort of online network of information where you never find out about what's happened. Exactly. We could do the new book. Forget Wikipedia. The new book by Ian King that goes up to these last seasons with everything in it, yeah. Which I've got in my next door. Which I'll keep pointing out to him. I've got a book next door that can tell you what I do this week. Ah, bless you. So anyway, enough about having a JD, but it was fair enough. Now there's not other fiction. Yeah. So the first thing that we're going to look at is back in 1981. Oh, so join us then. Ron Nodes made an announcement. Can you think of what that might have been? Was this Alan Mallory who's going to become a manager? It wasn't. Apparently, it's all Wilfred's to support his house. Wilfred Zahar's to support one night's house, apparently. Yeah, with football in the swimming pool. Yeah, and the mosaic with the... Oh, this wasn't about becoming chair of joint merging with Wimbledon, was it? It wasn't quite merging. No, it was Wednesday the 18th of February. And Ron Nodes stated publicly. It was a January. I hope otherwise we were a month out. It sent me the February ones. God love it. Even when he's not here. Oh, that's great. Even when he's not here. Right. So anyway, I'll get the book. Maybe on the 18th of February we can do the January ones. How about that? Shall we do that? Yes. That's kind of a break. That's not a lovely book. Well, no, it's cos I think famously. Actually, I think famously this is the week where nothing has ever happened to Paris. Nice. Nice. I've got to... I mean, to be fair, I should have probably looked at what he'd sent me by just assuming that he'd sent me the right date. Well, why would you... How long have you... That seeming has made an ass of him and me. Anyway, apparently Ron Nodes back in February of 1981. In this month? No, no. In this. In this... It's probably here. Well, he basically killed off the ground sharing idea. With Wimbledon. Shall we see what we can do with Wikipedia? That's good. That's good. No, I think we do now. I think we put this one down. Yeah. Right. Let's... Perhaps... We talk about what to expect from the Spurs game. We'll move on to the next part. We'll go to a break. I'm going to go to a break while we phone up. Join us in part three for the preview of the Spurs game. And welcome back to part three of the five-year plan podcast! Oh! Brought to you by Vector Printing. For all your print and embroidery needs, go to vector.co.uk. And that's Vector Wither. Yeah, you go. As well as JCIS, the global research and brand consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com. You started that intro just as streety as staring at me because I was having a senior moment complaining about how hot the radio was in my own house. You've got three menopause. Menopause. When there's quite clearly 'A' I can have a move a bit further away from it. Or 'B' I can turn it down because I'm looking at the radio. I'll find radio descriptions work particularly well on podcast. Yes, they do, yeah. But I just might explain why I was sounding a bit vacant. I was a victim to vector with a cave. I was a bunch confused. I was like, "Is that how normally?" Also, I was pondering the fact that JD is not even here and he managed to cock up. That's cock with a cave. And also the fact that he'll blame you. He always does that. "Well, JD, what was it in the go? Why aren't you flostered me?" It is my fault. I shouldn't have checked what you sent. Why should you check another grown-up? Well, you would assume that a grown-up man knows what week he is. Yeah. Well, that's a bit of work. These things turned out. As he moved to Cheshin, he's been... He's had a bit of a Hennessy, hasn't he? He's percentsy, yeah. He's done a bit of a drop. He's dropped a clanger. He's demonstrated terrible footwork. Yeah. He's slowed down a bit and he's since he moved to Cheshin. He's gone native. It's up in Tottenham country, is that? Yeah. Which is perfect. A perfect segue to... It's hot, isn't it? It's hot. No, that was just my season link. [laughter] And he's got his season link out again. Anyway, moving on. We're talking about Tottenham, which is our next fixture, so that'll be fun, won't it? I'm a bit worried. They just won their last game for one. I think they've been very, very good all season, frankly. They've played very consistently. They've lost only three games. They've just put in good performances most weeks and have been only on the receiving end of bad results against really Newcastle. And they've got some excellent footballers. They've set up in, I think, the sort of way that might cause a team who are looking a little bit reticent at them are in a few problems. They're not having too many problems scoring goals at the moment either, so it's a bit of a worry that match, to be honest. The only plus is that we probably would have said that this time last year going into exactly the same game. Exactly the same time? Yeah, exactly the same time. It was just after his party's first home league game, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. And which we won after game, won the all down. It's funny, Tottenham fans who complain about everything landing in a barrel with Kate Bush and Barbara Windsor. It's a daily reference, but you know what I mean. They really, after the Leicester Cup game, Tottenham fans have known a lot about the team being too young and not experienced enough. And it is a relatively young team, but they do play really good football. The thing that gives you a little bit of hope is that they will come on to us. They will try and attack us, and that hopefully will leave us some space to explore it at the back, arguably the back four isn't as strong as the midfield and going forward. But they are a team that we, that's bigger team than we are with more resources. They're an established Premier League team, they've got a very good manager, a really good squad, and it's going to be a difficult game. And they're the sort of team we should aspire to emulate in the future. And of course, the home record doesn't give you much calls for optimism, full stop. I think the attitude of the fans, we've talked quite a lot in this pod recently about how it's felt a bit flatter games. I wonder whether the fact that we haven't played well recently and we're playing against a really good team might lift the atmosphere a little bit. It might feel a little bit more like a come time. Plus Saturday 3 o'clock. Plus Saturday 3 o'clock. Which we have done too many exactly. So it might feel a little bit like we're going into the game as a underdog, and that might help us. Just to see how we approach the game. I would absolutely take a point now. After all the talk about transfer rumours disappearing just in the break. I'll just reread it again. It says that there's either a chance that he's going to sign a six-month contract or he's waiting for a better offer. Which I think I had a buyer. I was surprised about it. He's done for a lot of clubs. You get what he says on the team. We know what he's like. We know what he's going to do. But I still think he would, I mean there's a story there and if he comes in against Tottenham and scores a goal here. But I just think he will just generally lift the place for a few weeks, a few months. But under normal circumstances I wouldn't be that optimistic going into a game against Tottenham. And I think that was probably one of our poorer performances away from home this season. There's only one deal but they were a better side than us. They're an interesting side though aren't they? Because they've had, I mean this team now that they have has Lamella who during the summer there was talk of him leaving. They were going to send him for a reduced fee. Deli Ali who they signed from MK Don's. You're talking about players that maybe wouldn't have, they might not have seen would fit into the side. And yet here they are and they're playing, they're capable of finishing in the top four. They might even finish first. Which is someone else in the midfield who came through their academy as well? Mason. So they're a decent side with a very good manager. As you say it's a team that Palace should look to emulate. Does it also suggest that maybe fans don't always know what they're kind of, what they're talking about? Well in terms of the fact that a lot of Spurs fans were saying that Lamella just wasn't good enough last season and yet now he's running that midfield. If Palace had signed... Well 18 months ago they were saying Kane wasn't good enough and Kane was going out on loan every week to a different club. So I mean they weren't happy when he putched it in a game of running games. Do you just have to put your faith in the manager then? I mean is that what Palace will have to do now? Oh yeah of course. When it's a manager of proven quality like a party which of course you do. Yeah I mean Pochatino was still despite what he'd done at Southampton. It was a little bit of an unknown quantity for Tottenham fans because Tottenham are in a sort of club who demand the biggest managers in the world. But yes of course you have to put your faith in the manager. And the fact is that we're not... It's not Holloway or Walnut we're putting our faith in. It's part of you and as I say it's going to be interesting to see what we do. Hey on Tottenham and be for the rest of the season. But the hope is that I think the two games after that the Stoke game in the cup and then the Bournemouth game in the league is where you start. Because by Bournemouth we'll know what we've done in terms of transfers. We'll know what's happening for the rest of the season. Let's not forget Janik will be coming back this season. It's interesting though as well isn't it? We've had this kind of poor on a form in the league and yet we had that cup game against Southampton. And that people have seemingly wiped from all their kind of consciousness. And we were playing against... I saw on one of our Facebook pages I think that someone said that we were playing Southampton's reserves. Well actually if you looked at their team I think ten of their players were first teamers. We were playing against a team that beat an Arsenal four-nil just a couple of weeks ago. And somebody, I don't know if it was a point that they looked at all the Premier League teams in the FA Cup. And Palace in Southampton were I think the two that played closer to the first elevens than anybody else. So that wasn't Southampton reserves and that was a good result and it wasn't a fluke result even so. But again Southampton comes back to the thing. The Villa game is the only one that's a disaster. But Southampton are a team that I think we are, that's a sort of level we're at. I mean they got a bigger ground than us arguably more resources but that in terms of ability without the sort of level we're looking at. And given the coverage of the Premier League is all pervasive and ubiquitous. It's nice surprise that people look at a result and the Cup will go well it's only the third round of the Cup. We couldn't even watch it on TV. You barely saw any highlights of it. It's just not as relevant as a Premier League match would be. Well no and people will sometimes talk about the Cup in the Valley etc. etc. There was never really, there was always a time where the third round the Cup had romantic connotations because you get the real tiny teams coming through and all that sort of stuff. But if you watch Palace fans to think back through the last twenty years of third round Cup ties they wouldn't be able to remember a lot of them even. You find some fans who would probably be hard pressed to say who played in 1990 in the third round for example. So I've done that. The Harley pool, I remember losing the Harley pool. We did lose the Harley pool weren't you? Is that the third round? Well let's just say it was no one's and no one's going to bother looking forward. I do think part of you will be taking the Cup seriously. I think you will too. But I think fans will probably only start really caring one way or the other about matches like really badly once you get to sort of fourth or the fifth round. I mean yeah you sort of fans who go to every single match every single week home in a way would have been gutted had we gone out a third round of the Cup. But a lot of your fan base is now not necessarily just those guys and the rest of people seem to care possibly because of the publicity, possibly because it's worth so much money. Possibly because it's everywhere. More about the Premier League. What do you guys, do you guys think we need to do against Spurs to win them? Obviously the score goals I think is probably. No I'd be happy with a clean sheet and a nine goal when in it for us. That would be good. But do you think that there needs to be a key like a change in approach or is it just going to be a case of playing like we did against Man City? I don't think there will be a change in approach. Other than the goalkeeper maybe. Even then I don't think he'll end up driving. But the thing is you have to be realistic. At the start of the season you look at a list of teams that you don't like to say. But you do. There's a list of teams where you say any point against them is a bonus. And the top of them are kind of on that list of teams at the moment. So a point would be a good result, a good outcome. But it's more of a performance. You accept that every now and again in the Premier League you're going to be beaten by teams that have got better players than you have. But as long as you've played well and played to your best of your ability, you accept it. My worry is that people will be looking for signs of fatigue, lack of confidence, whatever. I don't think this is important. The Bournemouth game is the one. We need to have resolved this situation by it. We need to have sorted out the goalkeeper situation either way. We need to have got somebody in. It might be that Blassey surprises us and it's back for that. Who do you think is the key player for Palace against Spurs? Is that a fair kind of question to ask? Is there one player that can make big difference? I think we need to see something if Wolf and that sort of match. It was telling that even with the first 25 minutes against City, I don't want to sort of hark back to that because it was in the previous part. But even with that first 25 minutes where we played it all right, the only two genuine chances that we created were both for Damian Delaney. It's about time that some of those players a bit higher up the pitch started contributing a bit more to creating opportunities than just having to rely upon centre backs from set pieces and balls from deep wide areas. In that regard, Wolf's put in good performance as the other teams of Tottenham's Ilk before. Really, he's struggled a bit since Yalik's not been in that team. I think it's a time for him if he thinks he wants to be on that plane to France. Even the Euro star perhaps if that's how they're going to travel for the Euros in the summer, then he's going to have to start putting in performances even without Yalik in the team. So I think, if we're going to get anything from that game, I'll be looking for Wolf to put in a performance. And they're not a physical team Tottenham. They are maybe in the centre of the midfield but certainly in terms of formats. They're not a team that you associate with targeting skillful players. I think it's the sort of game Wolf can go into because we know that he does tend to soak a little bit if he gets targeted earlier on. He tends to withdraw into himself a little bit. I think they are the sort of team who will give him some time as a space. I think Andy's absolutely right. He's not the team he's one to kill anymore. It's about time Wolf kind of stepped up to the plane and took responsibility. And again, it's another perennial subject on this podcast, the difference between Balassie and Wolf. And one of the differences is that Balassie will go and look for the ball. He'll search for the ball whereas you don't see Wolf doing that. Wolf runs a bit of this season and his defensive play is a bit of this season. But you don't see him demanding the ball. You don't see him. There's so many times this season when there's been pressure on that platform. You see Wolf dropping a bit deeper and just saying, "Give it to me. I'll take it. I'll hold it. I'll run with it." Wolf just doesn't do that and he's got to take a bit of responsibility. He wants to go to the Euros. He's on the fringe of the squad. He's going to step up and make a decision. But at the moment, for me he's not doing that. For me, I think it's one of those games I think where you might see Connor Wickham score. And that's just because he's... That's a huge prediction. Why not? I think that injury was really unfortunate against Stoke in that it came at a point where he'd reached... He'd almost reached full-match sharpness. And then he ends up getting injured. And now I think Palace has been very careful. You're looking at injured celebrities. True. But we've been very careful with him and I think that after two weeks and then playing 60 minutes against Man City, he's probably ready now or he will be ready now to play a full match against Man City when he came off. It did make a big difference. It's one of those pivotal players where everything you send up to him, you want him to hold on to. Well, we saw the best of him against Newcastle. We saw what he could do. And he was really unlucky not to score twice in that game. And you might be right. I mean, he might be the answer. He might be the player who can hold it up long enough for the midfield to come and join him. At the moment, it doesn't look like how midfield have got the energy to do that. I mean, Wickham's clearly a good player, but he's not the answer to the goal scoring situation. It's going to be an interesting match, isn't it? Do you have any predictions? Do we do predictions? I look lucky enough of an idiot when I try to give reason to pin you, let alone predictions. But why not? Let's say Neil, Neil. Neil, Neil. I'm going, Neil, Neil. I'm going, Neil, Neil. I'd say the same. But again, the score line isn't that important to me. It's the performance. You want a reaction, you want a performance. And we're still, yeah, we're not. We're not. As we have been, one and a half, we're not a championship team. We're clinging on by the skin of our teeth. We're a decent side. We were just not having a brilliant run. Basically, simple as that. Yeah. Well, that's a good point to wrap it up on. Thank you, everybody, for listening in. Thanks to Andy and Kevin. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you for sending us. I was distracted by the radiator and probably doing it just missing a shot in the last seconds of the... See, look, we're five seconds away from being eight from the pool. I know I was distracted because I thought it was February. Yeah, thanks to JD for that one. Well, we'll get to join us again after the... Well, it's very good. Let's have a great one. All right, see you then. Bye. ♪ ♪ This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. ♪ How do you feel when you switch to Geico and save on your car insurance? It's like going to work on one Thursday morning and thinking to yourself just one more day until Friday. But then somebody in the elevator says, "Happy Friday!" Then you check your phone quickly and discover today is actually Friday. So yes, happy Friday, random stranger in the elevator. Happy Friday, indeed. 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It's official - 2016 is rubbish. The boys return to discuss another loss for Palace, and another blank as the team fail to score yet again. They try to solve the mystery of where the next goal is coming from, who should be Palace's goalkeeper, why JD thinks it's February and much, much more. So join us for an hour and a bit of Palace chat! (And please Palace, just score a goal again.)
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