Good dat, could be Phil Mississippi.

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

Ah OK.

I'll conduct my own amateur research

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

We have the same conversation each year about this.

When I walk around my house I see loads of stuff I am a bit bored of, or which is not top of the range. The temptation to give it away on Freecycle is significant, but unless I can afford upgrades I'm just going to be sitting there with no telly or fridge, aren't I?

I appreciate that contracts expiring can be a chance to free up some money or squad space, but it doesn't look like the 8 named players are using up a problematic amount of either.

Thats no great surprise. Our years of throwing daft money at has-beens are gone, and other than in the case of a top player choosing to run his contract down, chances are that if you are a player entering the last six months of your current deal at Palace, the club have half an idea that they could survive without you.

Almost nobody gets released by Palace and proves them wrong, so if you are on the 'contract-expiring' list, chances are there aren't many significantly better options out there for you. The players in question are better off hoping Palace need them for another year, and will have to bite the lip for a few months whilst Palace flirt with would-be replacements.

It can't be much good for the ego, but the sensible course of action for all these players is to keep their fingers crossed that Dougie and Steve can't afford and attract an upgrade. It's probably 60/40 in favour of the existing players, at least.

Whilst Palace can afford to let these contracts run down for now, I doubt that remains sensible all the way to June. Hughes, Schlupp, Clyne or Ward will start looking around if Palace don't at least start talks with them soon.

I appreciate that Real Madrid probably aren't beating a path to those players, but they do actually play in our team. I sometimes wonder if people know what that means - if they leave, we will need to replace them, with an actual top class professional footballer.

It's not a question of naming a player on the list who we think 'we can surely do better than'. Until and unless a new, replacement player is actually signed up, we haven't done better. Lose all four of those and that's probably four transfer fees you need to find, on top of the wages. Good luck getting a good striker after that.

I'd offer two-year deals on the same terms to Hughes and Schlupp, one year on the same terms to Ward, and one year on sensible money to Clyne (who surely isn't on £80k p/w these days - he signed a new one-year deal last summer). I'd consider another year for Riedewald unless the feedback from the coaching staff is that Ozoh is definitely ready to at least play 10-15 decent games a year at this level. I see no evidence so far that he is better than Reidewald, I just hope he is, which is not the same thing.

The players who seldom or never play are a different matter. Time must be up for Tomkins and Ferguson, and we have signed Holding and Richards already.

The third-choice keeper doesn't really matter I suppose. Not sure why clubs have one - they are rarely better than the best development-age goalkeeper, and you can get emergency loans outside of the transfer windows for GKs anyway.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (02 Jan 2024 4.56pm)

Not if they are free, a new contract has a signing fee even if you stay at the same club

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

I dont get why people think Clyne is on £80k a week, a litle research shows it to be nowhere near that.

Nathaniel Clyne earns £29,000 per week, £1,508,000 per year playing for Crystal Palace as a D/WB RL. Nathaniel Clyne's net worth is £26,312,000. Nathaniel Clyne is 32 years old and was born in England. His current contract expires June 30, 2024.

At £29k a week, he is good value.

Charlton fans are up in arms at their teams poor performance. One of the performance metrics that the current under siege manager is being assessed on by the board is the number of first team games that academy players get.

The fans believe this has led to the manager picking youngsters to meet that target even though there are better established players in the squad. Whatever the truth it's not working as their league position indicates.

So yes I take your point. However the FA cup will be a litmus test, we should be resting Olise to protect him and giving Franca and Ozoh a chance. If Roy doesn't do that then I suggest he is being stubborn.

One more point