Plenty has been said on social media in the last few days about the lack of signings made by Palace so far this summer.
We should really know better. Similar was said in January when fans were crying out for new additions to the squad but Tony Pulis ended up with Scott Dann, Joe Ledley and Tom Ince. All three contributed to securing our safety in the Premier League and for little cost.
The only one of those three that did not really pay off was the loan signing of Tom Ince. He scored on his debut but did little else for the reputed £1 million loan fee. Both Ledley and in particular Dann were worth their weight in gold as the season moved on proving that there has to be some faith in the management team.
What we should learn from the January transfer window is that all the while Palace are linked with player after player in the rumour mill, conducting business methodically and avoiding the prying eye of the media is a far better way to go about things.
The rumour mill this summer continues in much the same way. So far we have been linked with Jake Livermore, Michael Dawson, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Steven Caulker, Frazier Campbell, Morgan Amalfitano and John Ruddy to name but a few.
That will continue but you have to consider the inflated transfer fees that are being demanded by domestic clubs. A clear point in case is Steven Caulker. He earned rave reviews last season with Cardiff and it is clear that he could well be tempted with a return to the Premier League without the club he captains.
The fee being touted for Caulker is around £8 million which you may not consider to be that big in the general scheme of things. But when you think back to Palace signing Scott Dann from Blackburn Rovers for a fee believed to be £1.5 million which is likely to rise to £2.5 million with add ons.
You could argue that for the £8 million you know what you are going to get in view of Caulker’s great season and the signing of Dann was more of a gamble. In fact, Scott Dann already had Premier League experience with both Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City in recent years which made that deal all the more sweeter. It just goes to show that there is always a deal out there if time is taken to look around.
There are plenty of free agents around now that we are in July but in the majority of cases those players have been freed by their previous clubs for a reason – surplus to requirements. There are not many that are worthy additions to a Premier League squad such as ours and we are more likely to offload than add.
It was common knowledge that we had the biggest squad over a period of two years which culminated in promotion to the Premier League. It is a squad that still needs to be cut down in order to impreove the fringe players and the likes of Stephen Dobbie, Jerome Thomas, Barry Bannan, Peter Ramage, Jack Hunt and maybe even Pep Guedioura could well be having to look elsewhere for first team football.
I will end with a plea to fans to be patient and see what happens. The squad report for training next week and it is likely that Tony Pulis will be giving his squad the once over.
Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that knee jerk signings are not being made. It suggests that we have a club that is complete control of it’s own future.
Take your mind off the transfer market and look and some of these funny football clips
