Ted Bates Statue

Much more concerning is the tagline at the bottom - "We never stop". I demand that this is updated with a disclaimer to acknowledge that we actually do stop at the end of the season, and also whenever a pandemic occurs.

Did you ever follow Kelvin Davis' career? He was selected on multiple occasions for 'Team of the Season' in the lower leagues and yet every time he played in the Premier League either he lost his place or his side got relegated. Still, the selective reading of stats is all that matters, and on that basis I for one welcome our SPL Champion Fraser Forster back as Ralph's number one for next season.

I have been guilty of only noting Eddie Howe's failings in the transfer market but reading the above twitter thread suggests that perhaps he isn't that bad after all. Even Man City have probably had to spend the best part of a billion on their defenders in the last five years. It is odd in that previously proven players like Begovic and Defoe didn't work out, but for others like Ibe, Clyne, Wilshere, they were already shown to be struggling at their previous clubs so there was obviously a risk to take them on in the first place. To me it looked like he would have been fine to deliver at Championship level as he clearly has an eye for a bargain... an actual wheeler-dealer unlike another sensitive local resident. Maybe if he doesn't turn up at Palace, perhaps he is an outside bet for a Director of Football.

Not sure the gold looks right on the 3rd kit. Reminds me of the sort of packaging you get on bags of rice. Maybe it'll look ok when it's worn but whenever I see it I just think of the Yau Brothers supermarket.

The fact that many of them seemed to pin their hopes on it being similar to Gao's protracted takeover of us tells you how desperate they are. If that's the attitude pervading through the club then it cannot end well. My guess is when they do get sold it will be a fascinating honeymoon period before a rather rude awakening, by which point they will be looking nervously at the lower end of the Championship.

And that's why we're not getting tenth place this season.

He might well be viewed as a legend up there (I would have infintely preferred him to Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes) but he does have a lot of implosions on his CV. I'll guess that they will take a lot of teams by surprise but slide down the table towards the end of the season.

MLG - do you have a link to the blog or article where you got this info? I'm inclined to think that Hojbjerg has been part of our problem since Koeman left but it's no good providing stats like these without anything to compare against - such as our own players, or maybe peak Schneiderlin seeing as he is the person who Everton want to replace.

I agree with your sentiment. I also want them to stay up because of the hilarity of having three South coast clubs in the PL with none of them being Pompey. However, it's not our fault if Boscombe couldn't get their act together for the 36 other fixtures. We've already donated them 3 points and they probably need to do the double over us to have a sniff of staying up. And then they will probably conspire to mess up against Everton. If they drop points against us this weekend, too bad. It's been fun.

If he keeps as many clean wins per game as Kevin Miller did, that would be decent going.

True - but at the time it was frustrating having to rely on him while all our other strikers were either shown the door or sent out on loan.

I see David McGoaldrought has scored his first premier league goal against Chelsea. It only took him 1600 minutes. Edit - he joined us young enough to be an academy player didn't he? I remember the clamour for him to play when he was at youth level.

I forgot he had missed against Arsenal in November as he scored the rebound. So that's two he's missed this season - not great for a dead ball maestro, and considering Ings is still in with a chance for the golden boot.

It means nothing without an NHS badge there too. Got to get a poppy on there too if you're a completist. Not sure why people are upset about a Chinese logo, if anything I would prefer a logo I can't read or decipher. We can get nostalgic about the eras of our previous sponsors but how much do you really want to pay for the sake of plastering 'Virgin' or 'Tools' on the front of your shirt? Will be interesting to see the away shirt. If we can't agree over the red and white sashes, it could get interesting on here when it turns out to be blue. 🍿

Looks good and nice to see something slightly different. There's no pleasing some people. Well done to the ITKs who told us of this months ago.

Alex Buttner

A bit like the shape of the Red Bull team crests then 😜

Cedric scores on his debut.

Ok I'll try - BAME are unfairly penalised by Covid-19 due to the negligent and disgraceful actions of our Government. Conversely, BLM should be afforded the right to protest their unfair treatment during the lockdown imposed by the Government for everyone's safety, and are exempt from following the Government's guidance on social distancing which has been implemented to keep the public safe. If there is any health risk to the protestors as a consequence of the protests, it must not be mentioned publicly in case of negative attention. I don't have a problem of looking at BLM from the perspective of Colin Kaepernick being unfairly blacklisted for years by the NFL, and not sure what is wrong with expressing support for Palestine either but I would consider the above to be an example of the doublethink that people may find bewildering. Defunding the UK police seems a particularly ill-judged concept. If that is the hill they have chosen to die on then this will fizzle out with a wimper. I expect the mass kneeling will continue until the end of the season but beyond that it will be restricted to the odd goal celebration. There are enough silences already and we could have had two per game after the terrorist attack the other week.

Our last player from the first season back in the PL. Best wishes to the man.

Not even halfway through his five year contract with us. It'll be a few more years of this.

What is really mental is how much London property costs. If Palace did an MK Dons and moved out, consider the real estate value of Selhurst Park. Probably worth a bit more than our patch of Northam.

Did anyone else miss this game? Radio stations today seemed to forget the PL existed today, in favour of the cup.

If Fraser Forster has problems then where does that leave Joe Hart? Officially past it for most of the last decade. Just trying to figure out when. Four years to the day since Iceland beat England but wasn't he ditched by City a while earlier?

It's only Mane and VVD who have really had an impact for them as far as I'm aware? As MLG pointed out Chamberlain was sold by Cortese and never played for us in the premier league. Doesn't prevent us from wondering what we could have achieved had we held onto some of our players, but fans of every team go through the same issues. Even Liverpool had to sell Coutinho. Would be good if we did get a bonus for the likes of Lallana and Lovren just before they inevitably get binned off for better options.