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I like a rant, I like Palace, I don't like polluting the 'Tips for Tikay' thread with Palace talk. I will have free reign here.

I am not a typical chirpy fan that bores you with bias and a little bit of an OTT affection for their club. I am not like that, I am a reserved supporter, go to a lot of games home and away but I feel the urge to scream from the rooftops because finally i think we have a team to get us promoted automatically and that excites me.

We have one of the best goalkeepers in the league. We have two great wing backs who are undoubtedly solid. A centre back in Damian Delaney who has been a revelation, since coming in he hasn't lost a game. Ramage is the weak link in the team for me as his partner and really think we have a better player on the bench in Darcy Blake who was very impressive at the beginning of the season. Saying that though you can't take much away from Ramage as he is doing well by anyone's standards, I just think we have better on the bench is all.

With the midfield we have two very strong anchoring centre midfielders in Jedinek and KG who provide a steel with great pestering in closing down and hard tackling. Then, we have the small playmaker just in front of them in Garvan, who takes our free kicks and has a great eye for a through ball and cross, a great left foot. Then we have two very tricky wingers in Bolassie and Zaha. Bolassie has improved massively under the influence of Zaha because I think he is realising if he can do it I can too. Has been a great asset and scored last night which is great to see as he always gets himself into good areas but was always lacking the finish. Very skillfull and many a fan believe he is much like Zaha, say at 70% in comparison.

Then we have Wilfried Zaha. Has been terrorising defences all season and has been the figurehead of our great form. Last night he was quiet until the start of the second half and then burst into action getting us a penalty. He normally makes every full back he comes up against look silly, forcing them to play deep which opens up play elsewhere. I have not seen anyone with the raw ability to get past their man like he has the capacity to do. He is the best flair player I have ever seen. His crossing is getting better. His shooting is still pretty woeful but if that was to improve then he would be a true phenomenon. He really excites me and if he improves as much next season for us as he did from last season to this then he will be a joy to watch.

Then up front we have Glenn Murray who we nabbed from our rivals Brighton. 12 goals i believe he has this season and wouldn't be surprised if half we pens. We have had 5 penalties in the last 2 games which is astonishing. He has missed 2 of those though so that is enough for me to say he can't have them anymore. Both times he went down the middle and the keeper effectively stood there. Aside from that, he is the archetypal target man linking up play to the two tricky wingers and bringing the whole team up the pitch. Very good with his head and getting into poaching positions from crosses and being in the right place at the right time. He needs to improve his direct shot taking on goal though as he is mostly always looking to feed someone else and can't remember the last time he took a shot from outside of the box this season. But for the way we are playing this season I do think no other player available from this division could match what he does for Palace. Aside from Zaha, if Murray was to get injured you would probably see us as a mid table outfit. Zaha and Murray are huge for this club.

Think that is about it. I would predict Peterborugh away to be a very tough encounter and I am probably not going to back it considering how well they are doing at home. I assume it will be a draw, but if we can get an early goal we could quite well deflate them and get on top as we did to Ipswich who I might add were the better side for the first 20 mins last night until we winded them with our first and they could never really recover after that.

Talk about anything Championship in here as well and any supporters from fellow clubs should give spiels about how your team are performing just so that everyone can get a better insight. How is your team getting on? Any bet suggestions?

I welcome rants and essays about any of the championship sides as I am always interested to better know the opposition! Let loose in here if you would like. I would however be pretty impressed with all of you if there wasn't one reply and this was left to die, as I would take that as an awesome bit of a 'shhhhhhh' to me. I would applaud it. Now for some reason I am almost welcoming it, but please don't.

Congratulations Ant!

Long may it last.

Newcastle have plenners, Palace have you.

I was very impressed with Palace when they played at Oakwell a few weeks ago (on the day that Freedman had left the club).

One of the better sides seen at Oakwell this season, without a doubt.

N1.

We didn't even have Zaha, probably the cutting edge we missed there. Did we deserve the win that night or was the draw fair?

8/1 for ptomotion long gone.  Currently best priced 11/4.  I took the 5/1 a couple of days ago.  Lets do this.

Was I a partial cause to you taking 5/1?

Yep,  decided they were too big at 8s but by then they had played another match.  Rather than sulk, I just bet anyway.  Also backed them last night, though wasn't much. 

The draw was fair overall.

It was amusing reading the forums afterwards as the Palace fans' general reason for not winning the game was that Zaha was missing, which completely ignored the fact that we've been missing pretty much a first team for the whole season (Steele, McNulty, O'Brien, Mido, Silva to name a few).

Glad to be of help.

Makes me chuckle about how you rubbished our chances and my claims for how we are doing great and it should continue. Imagine you just stopped and thought for a second, past your preconceptions and then knew it made sense.

Look out for the injuries of Murray or Zaha and we have our starting midfielder Dikagcoi going for a month in January for the Africa Cup of Nations and he is pretty integral. Will be interesting to see how we get on without him.

I think why Palace go on about Zaha is because he can literally be a one man show and I have no idea but assume none of those players you listed are singularly as important as he to how well the team play. But you are right, we weren't caring about your team troubles we only look at Zaha gone and bemoan our luck.

Considering you were so light on players you did terrifically. I only just seen the highlights now and it looks like you rode a dominant first half from us and got back into the game in teh second. I remember betting at evens on that game for the Palace/draw and is one of the many successful bets i have had because of our unbeaten run.

How do you perceive your chances this year?

You going to be staying up comfortably. Possibly going to go on an amazing run up the table to push for playoffs when the players a back? I know your manager was in the hat to replace Freedman and i have only heard good things about him. Do enjoy his frank interviews, always comes off well.

Palace are best priced 11/4 for promotion.

I'll lay 3/1.

Good thread - the Championship delivers year on year - one of the most exciting leagues in the world.

I am a Watford fan.  We have had a summer of positive unheaval but the big changes have predictably led to inconsistency.  We have a very talented team - probably the best I have seen since the 80s, but I am yet to be convinced of Zola as manager, and I don't think we have any idea what our best team is.

I expect us to improve as the season goes on (we are on 20 points right now in 16th, but ckoser to the playoffs than the relegation spots) and I think there is zero chance of us going down.  I've seen us three times so far (inlcuding the 3-2 game at Selhurst), and the team has played well only in patches.  I would take 10th with a playoff push the year after.

As for Palace I still don't think they will last the course, but I am less certain of that than I was after 2 extremely comfortable wins since that post.  I think Holloway is an upgrade on Dougie, and I think it might actually really boost their season, as Holloway will give new impetus and may well keep the great start going even further.

By the way Ant - unlucky Boro couldn't bink a winner last night - I was rooting for you for a £5k win!

My Watford correspondent needs a box of Kleenex every time the word Forestieri is mentioned.

Dunno why.

We all were!

Forestieri is a really fun player to watch.  He goes past players like they are not even there and works hard for a flair player.

He could be really really special, but there is much work he needs to do.  His finishing is pretty dreadful for starters from what I have seen, but his attitude should give him every chance of making it to the top.  Will proabably end up in La Liga I think, but I am hopeful we can keep him for at least another 2 years before the Pozzos cash in.  That probably necessitates us going up next season though so he can be showcased in the Premier.

ORLY?

Finally your own topic on rants about Palace :) :)

I said to you a couple of times already I am very surprised with Palace this season. I didn't see that much of them in the transfer market & didn't realise how good Zaha actually is.

On another note very surprised really with a few things in this division and especially how poor the 3 newcomers from the Premier League are, they are nothing to be scared of, we lost to each of them by one goal.

As for going down, don't like to say something is nailed on but Bristol City are doomed, manager is clueless & fans think they are doomed too.

I may be putting words in your mouth. This is what i am capable of.

Their form is truly horrendous, losing 6 in a row, wtf is that.

Our chances very much depend on the following:
1) Keeping Hill and Flitcroft (I'll feel happier when the Blackpool job gets filled by someone else).
2) Not getting sold out by the short-sightedness of the Board like last season (selling Vaz Te for only £500k in January and subequently only staying up due to Portsmouth's point deduction)
3) Whether a takeover happens or not (our owner has been fantastic but is actively trying to sell due to ill-health and a pending court case).  If it does, then Hill may well choose to walk or might be replaced (idiocy, in my view, but it would probably happen).
4) Avoiding large-scale injuries (although we've been through this already this season and shown that we have better squad depth than in recent seasons).

If we stay up, then I'll be happy.  On our day, as seen by the Birmingham game, we can compete with anyone but we'll struggle to maintain the consistency enough to sustain anything more than ambitions of a mid-table finish.  If Hill is allowed to continue his progress long-term he'll keep developing players from the lower leagues, we'll cash in on them when they move on, and we'll hopefully continue to defy expectations.

His interviews/public persona really splits the fanbase.  Personally, I love the fact that he says it as he sees it, but if you read our fans forum you see very quickly how others use this an excuse to get rid of him.  None of them ever manage to come up with a credible alternative candidate though.  If Hill does go then the popular choice would probably be to go for Steve Davis from Crewe, who's done a good job there on limited resources and was part of the squad who got us promoted to the Premiership.

Brimingham had 13 shots on target too, could have been a lot worse for them last night, imo.

A few for possible bet at weekend:

Friday:

M'boro 5/6 v Sheff Wed - I can't see much hope for us here. I think 5/6 (might be better elsewhere) is good price, considering our one away win.

Leeds 11/10 v Watford
Millwall 11/10 v Derby

got my ticket for Palace away on 1st December :)

Been to the last 3 away days there. Time for revenge on the 3-1  ;stickaforkinme;

Not quite all of us, I did think of you and the Palace bet last night so well done on that one.  Palace continue to surprise, and in this league, consistency is the key.  Up to 10 teams could win this league, and Palace for me, are now 1 of them.

As for our chances, well, an outside chance of nicking a play off place is possible, but before a ball was kicked this season, I would have been happy with 10th.  This season is about integrating all the new signings with a real push next season.

Who's going to win the league?  Before last night I would have said Cardiff, but now retract that.

Puzzled, but very pleased by this.  Can't imagine jjandellis is overly thrilled though.

"Blackpool have named Michael Appleton as their new manager after reaching an agreement for his release from Portsmouth."

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/8233990/appleton-named-blackpool-boss

Did a lot of digging and looked at all of the bets above and turned them down. My reasoning was Boro apparently never really got out of the blocks against Forest as they were 'jaded'. They are playing a day early on Friday as well so that adds to it so i am steering clear.

Leeds' home record in the league is pretty woeful of late i believe and Watford seem to be building something now.

Millwall I don't mind the bet at all, but Derby's form has been very good with three wins in 4 so I thought a draw was all too possible so left it, but of the three that is my favourite.

My own bet for the weekend is Palace to beat Peterborough and Charlton draw no bet at a double of around 4.85, ££450 on it.

Think Palace are just showing too much and if we get on top early against them they may assume the position of which has become all too familiar to them this season. I am aware that they won their last two home games pretty convincingly, but in the second half of the Brighton game they let them have 32 shots, and I just think we would eventually breach them. OFC you need to look at their strikeforce at home which is good but we have one of the best defences in the league.

Charlton showed great style in their 5-4 win over Cardiff the other night and have had some tough ties recently which may be masking their true worth. Bristol City on the other hand have just been woeful. As though I am not overly confident Charlton will win I am more confident they won't lose so I think the draw no bet here is good, with a win having a decent chance of happening.

As for Palace as a whole, everyone is surprised by us. Freedman has laid it on a plate for Holloway and if we don't lose our momentum all season I think Holloway would have to thank Freedman for a large part of our success. Freedman got us to a professional standard on and off the pitch with loads of added staff members, a real concentration on fitness and building a solid base at the back for us to spring from with the tricky wingers.

Freedman wasn't really tested in how he would react to adversity once our run hit a bit of a block, where I think Holloway is better placed to deal with that as he is known for his hugely impressive man management skills which would help in a situation like that.

Would like to remind people i got £200 on at 11/1 for Palace promotion and don't care for winning the league, second will do :P

Interesting. All i heard was good things about how well you guys played in the second half and I hope you guys the best of luck for the rest of the season. I never like seeing managers I like having trouble and I like Keith Hill. On a random note i hate Mark Hughes, comes across as a prick in interviews.

Bring it :)

I would say Middlesbrough are best poised to win the league and they should be favourites. I would like to add that i think the only reason Palace are in contention is that the relegated teams haven't bonded properly after going down and the other hopefuls just aren't matching previous years' standards for top of the table sides.

That is my view, as i don't see how we can possibly be seen as the best team in the league currently when we don't do much special. We are just a solid workmanlike team, with two tricky wingers.

If Cardiff, Blackburn, Wolves, Bolton or any other big side jelled a lot better than they already have, then we wouldn't be in with a shout.

Would you guys agree that the standard for teams at the top of the table have dropped a little? Or are Palace currently making things look easy because we are superior? I bloody doubt the latter.

Used to just damage limitation management by the looks of things. I would hope though that he does well at Blackpool, because he seems a good manager.

The Championship has no stand out team this year

Not a year where a Newcastle, WBA or a West Ham are going to win it by 15 points.

Blackburn are in a state of flux, Bolton too, Wolves changed manager. All competitive sides but none goning to run away with it

So I would say the standard of the top six is slightly below par, but the depth in the Championship is stronger

More teams are well funded (and with big fan bases, very difficult to go to Hillsborough, Elland Road etc) , and capable of beating the top teams in the table at any point

This is one of the things that makes the Championship interesting, and this year more than most


I also have a theory that is proving profitable this year, in that players particularly strikers who 10-15 years ago would have been playing in the top flight aren't these days as most Premiership teams look abroad. This means there are players in the Championship who once might not have been

eg For every Kone at Wigan, Pogrebnyak at Reading, Cisse at QPR, Benteke at Villa there results in a striker that is in the Championship for first team football.....

In that the squeeze is felt more in strikers than defenders, there is a mismatch in ability and this leads to higher goals per game and more excitement

Allied to that gone are the days when lots of managers turn up, put 10 behind the ball away and look for a point. Because the division is so competitive teams need to look for away wns, and you can see that in a higher incidence of away wins this season compared to prior ones

 

Solid info, thanks for sharing.

I don't know quite what else to add to that other than I have just been well informed.

£100 on Cardiff Boro Palace treble. Just over 8/1

£450 on Palace and Charlton DnB. Just under 5/1

Feeling good about tomorrow, I will be in attendance as well. Never been to London Road (Peterborough) before if anyone can share details about the place?

Chompy is your man. Not missed a Posh home game in 30 years.

Terracing for away end, normally a great atmosphere if the away end is full

Very much this, had a cracking Day/Night down there a few years ago.Id expect the Holmesale Fanatics will enjoy themselves.

I'm happy to be a part of this thread, at least until the end of the season  :(

Come on Poshies! Time to derail the mighty Palace!

Best of luck to you and ty for the other responses peeps, I think we are bringing over 3000 fans so should be a great atmosphere.

The posh were perhaps the worst team i have ever seen play based on their performance at the Amex during the week.

Chompyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Still be pretty sure we're going down, although never say never under Fergie Jnr. Bristol City are worse than us though tbf.

Is Boydy playing today ?

Incoming text from Chompy @ 15.55.

"What price Palace to win on Betfair? God knows how we are one up".

I'm constitutionalising, & don't reply until 16.30, with the score still 1-0 to Peterborough.

"13.5".

I don't get a reply.......

This was like my worst result of the year.  Had a big bet on Posh @3.20, topped up at 2.35 dnb, layed palace big for firm and just to add insult to injury the late goals knocked my beloved Boro off the top of the league.  I am heading back next month for a lads day out to the Posh - Boro game....i might take petrol and matches!!!!

Ahahaha, we were totally owned from start to finish. Palace should have won by half a dozen. It's only because we're a stubborn bunch at the back these days and have a quality keeper that we stayed in it for so long.

Anyone who slammed Ant's 8-1 about Palace getting promoted without having seen the team play...hang your head in shame!

This lot will take some stopping.

I backed palace today but purely on how bad the posh are, Palace are good but i still don't see them in the same light as the top Championship clubs. At 8-1 though i would be pretty happy, i would also however be switching positions and having a nice freeroll on them not going up.

We have a huge sweat again lads.

For pure grit and heart they would have been good for the win at the end imo, but it would have been undeserved. In the second half, it was all us, and our finishing was lacking.

What I dont quite get is Redarmi and Camel backing the Posh, when, no offence Chompy, we would have probs won 0-4 if they hadn't shook us with the early goal.

Two sublime finishes and now firmly believe we are coming top two.

How did everyone else's teams get on and thoughts with that?

My boys sneaked a 6-1 win away at Leeds. :)

Zola could be turning it around then, gd stuff. I still don't quite understand how he has got the West Ham and Watford jobs on so little experience, but hey ho.

Both bets came in over the weekend which is good, suggests I might be developing an alright eye for Championship betting as I have actually stopped doing any other market, just this league now. Eyeing up a few more bets for this next coming weekend but will have to wait and see how the odds look with them.

Anyone got any early tips possibly.

Was delighted that we (Charlton) followed up the Cardiff win with a very comfortable away win today and especially the clean sheet after conceding 8 in two at home. Really hoping past two results along with some key players returning from injury can kick start our season and push on from here. Palace looking real good, nice double btw!

Roy Hodgson has handed Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha a shock call-up and also added Carl Jenkinson and Tom Huddlestone to his England squad

Zaha, 20, has been capped five times at Under-21 level and attracted the attention of a host of top clubs.
 
Now Hodgson has recognised that quality by handing Zaha a spot in his revised squad for Wednesday's friendly with Sweden.
 
"Wow, everything's happening so fast," Zaha wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening.


http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/8243218/zaha-called-into-england-squad (http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/8243218/zaha-called-into-england-squad)

Bristol had lost their last 6 before the match, and Charlton had won their last two of four away from home, plus had that great game against Cardiff at home, so I thought the value was there. Great to hear about the revival. Even though we are supposed to be somewhat rivals I went to Greenwich Uni and knew a lot of Chalrton fans and the banter with them was always good, so i want them to do well. Same for Millwall, I would like them to do well as they are London, but I know I am supposed to want both of you down.

Brighton I think are the only team where I wouldn't mind them not doing well and that is odd for me even with the Palace affiliation and this is more to do with Gus Poyet then the actual team. He said recently that Will Buckley was better than Zaha, which is outrageous but more importantly his interviews are petulant and I would think the players under him may be losing respect as he is always bemoaning something or another, and I can't see how he is galvanising them.

He is as good as Stirling, probably better so this is fair enough. I think this may be a stunt as well to make sure he commits his National future to England as Didier Drogba has been trying to lobby Zaha to play for the Ivory Coast, which is terrible for any club manager to think of over the month of January with the ACN. Plus if he improves at the same rate he has done over the last two years then for the next two, especially with his finishing then he has the opportunity to be England's best ever winger. Not mincing my words and it's heavily dependent on him improving more but I don't see why he won't.

People I think don't rate him too highly and think Palace fans are just being crazily biased when we talk about him, but it is only when you watch him for 90 mins that most people follow suit. Must imagine most people just thought I was being hysterical when I first started babbling on about Zaha and Palace as a whole. I am normally reserved but our team currently is worth talking about exuberantly and I don't see any reason why we can't win the league, especially if we keep the services of Zaha in January.

People possibly don't believe the hype as how many of our own clubs players have got hyped up over the years. Plus the fact most people have not watched him play for 90 minutes.

I think most people do believe the Zaha hype, I've seen him live a few times and he's brilliant

Can see any of Arsenal (like Ox, Walcott) Spurs (Kyle Walker, Naughton) Chelsea (Moses) Man C (Sinclair), Man U (Powell, Smalling, Phil Jones) etc wanting him badly in January much like they snapped up those players in brackets at similar ages and took them to the next stage.

Our chairmen have come out and said that the only reason they took the club on was for promotion and as we have Zaha signed on until 2017 they really want to have a crack at it this year with Zaha in our team. I would go as far as to say they are turning down any bid that is 19 million or below, as with him, it is almost unlikely we won't get promoted with the way things are going. If we don't make the prem he could then go in the summer for a price tag more than if he was to go in January. Even then, we could hold onto him for one more whole season until the summer of 2014 and demand a high price tag after 2 full seasons of Zaha value to the team.

Of course he could start becoming disillusioned at the club if we retain him for too long, but he would need to be playing well just so when he does go, he can get the best deal possible. So all the cards really are in Palace's hand as we have him contracted for so long.

I will be very very surprised if he goes in Januray. Gonna actually up it and say 25 million will get rejected, which is fucking mental, but I do believe the chairmen see the value in keeping him and getting us up this year. As If we sold him for 25 million, our team's centrepiece has gone, the whole team could crumble and we could scrape play offs and lose. All for 25 million? Not worth it. Of course you can load up your squad with great championship players for that price and get on with promotion, but Zaha in the prem with us next season could assure us fourth from bottom if we do go up and hopefully the chairmen have some huge bollocks to resist the massive temptation that will come in January.

Ant, you really do have your Crystal Palace goggles on don't you! Probably more than anyone on here (insert relevant club) lol. Although I do love it!

The £25m on Zaha is a bit OTT imo & shows what I am saying above. The whole we won't sell if we don't get certain amount is lol, because fans always stick to their guns about it. I can give you loads of relevant examples Snodgrass from Leeds to Norwich, Leeds put stupid price tag on him, Leeds don't get anywhere near, same with Walcott to Arsenal, perhaps Fabregas too & plenty more.

I definitely don't think it would be anywhere near the £25m mark.

In other news, I assume you will be on EVS for Palace at home to Derby? Thoughts?

Derby are orindary, even the mighty Posh took care of them with the MOF. Evens is a cracking price.

Zaha a monster confirmed - I'd be very very surprised if he doesn't go in January. And for less than £19m. We'll see. Your other winger also pretty special.

"I will be very very surprised if he goes in Januray. Gonna actually up it and say 25 million will get rejected, which is fucking mental"

I know he and the team are doing well.  But this post is preposterous.  The chances of them getting offered close £25 million are zero.

They might get an offer in the £12-£15 million range after all the add ons when he has (maybe) played 25 times for England.  And they'd be highly likely to accept it.

@BBCCambsSport

Peterborough have transfer-listed Gabby Zakuani, Emile Sinclair, Tyrone Barnett and Nat Mendez-Laing following a breach of club discipline

What's gone on Chompy?

Aren't they some of posh's best players?

Indeed.

Normally when you see these stories they involve no mark reserve team players.

I'm assuming they have done something pretty bad.

call me cynical

they have all been on fringes of team of late

all have potential and hence a decent transfer value

The football club have issued the following statement.

Peterborough United are disappointed to report that Gabriel Zakuani, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Emile Sinclair and Tyrone Barnett have been transfer listed and fined by the football club following an internal investigation into a breach of club discipline.

The club will be making no further comment on the matter.

Word is they were all seen out in a nightclub drinking, smoking and making a 'general nuisance of themselves'.

Every time I've seen Barnett play (not that often admittedly) I've been impressed. Certainly he's got all the physical attributes to be a top player.

Although I just did a twitter search for his name and there are lots of comments from Posh fans(made prior to today's announcement) which suggest exactly the same as you've said. Get out of my club you lazy git, is the gist of them.

Zakuani is a player I have always liked too. Have been a bit surprised about his lack of playing time recently.

I saw your chairman in the footballers show on Sky a few weeks ago. He impressed me greatly. If it comes to a straight choice between Fergie and Fry, I think he'll make the right call, however close he is to Bazza.

mendez-liang has bags of ability but has the wrong attitude (or certainly did at wolves)

We've been lumbered with Barry 'the character' Fry for way too long. Find a Posh fan that has a good word to say about him and you'll be doing very well.

Daragh and Fergie have had their moments but they're the reason for out recent success.

It's a shame about Zak. He was dropped for giving the ball away too much but there has to be more to it than that imo, the guy was a class apart last season.

the only name i am surprised about is zak

pretty sure he has always been a good pro

I say the £25m mark is hasty yes, but I don't think the Chairmen would accept it, but obviously i doubt that the offer would be that high. I think the Palace chairmen have been way too chirpy about not accepting any bid below £20m to then actually go ahead and accept less. They have been quoted as saying they won't accept anything less, if they were looking to sell they may not be so bullish about all this but I don't know. I may have my Palace goggles on but I really can't see him going, with the contract we have with him!

The Derby bet is huge value. I would say we should be 1.6. Derby lost to Millwall and Peterborough in their last two away games. Palace played both of those two recently and could have easily won by 4 goals in each.

Leicester are 1.6 to beat an improved Ipswich at home after 3 games with Mick McCarthy, with Leicester's form of late being pretty terrible by their standards. We were priced at 2.0 at home against Ipswich after just one game with McCarthy in charge and we were on a run of 11 games unbeaten. Someone is probably going to cotton on sooner or later to Palace, but I will just keep backing until they do.

I am siding towards Boro/draw at 8/9 away to Cardiff by saying despite Cardiff's great home record they have been a little fickle of late and haven't been convincing in their wins recently. In contrast Boro are on a ridiculously good run of form and I think they could punish Cardiff and expose them as well as Charlton did at the Valley, even though they will be playing away.

Blackpool away win against Bristol City, (2.38) with the latter's form being horrendous and Blackpool are starting to look sharper. Also, Huddesrfield/draw against Brighton (1.55). The former having a decent run of late and showing great home form with the latter, struggling for form and with not the best away record.

I am going to back Boro +0.5 (8/9) and Palace win (18/19) double with 188bet (3.67). Going to back them both as singles as well for the best price available, elsewhere if necessary. Plus, I am going to go on 4 trebles and a quadruple involving the aforementioned bets with Huddersfield/draw (1.55) and Blackpool win (2.38).

Chompy, your goalkeeper was on top form against us and was one of the stand out players of the game I saw.

Of the first half you had a team playing a good standard of football that I would say was definitely of a championship mid table quality at least, so surprised you haven't been playing like that more this season and therefore being in a much safer position than you are.

To make matters worse for you, Ipswich are going to be nowhere near the bottom 3 come the end of the season and aside from Bristol City I really don't know who the other two relegation candidates will be if you haven't got one sewn up already.

I think it has been mostly at Pride Park, but Derby seem an improved outfit to me this year.  That said it seems a tad disrespectful that Palace are not a shade of odds on.  1.6 I'd be laying though!

If they turn down £10m i would be shocked.

Derby bet is not huge value, just value.

They would accept £20m Ant, take those Palace shades off! They are business men too.

£19m or below won't be accepted imo.

I will have an evens bet with anyone on £16m or higher up to £150. I have been saying no lower than £20m, but that was off the back of the Chairmen's comments and they may be pulling a fast one. If i was to put money on it I would have £16m or higher if anyone wants a piece of that?

Lol, stop being so deluded Ant!

Back to matters Poshy...

"According to forums, the four players were smoking, drinking and got into a fight with fans over the disappointment that is this season. Two were apparently arrested."

Zak has posted the following on twitter:

"I went out on a weekend where there's no midweek game, those that know me know I don't drink or smoke, I was up at 8am for church next day. Honestly at the time I didn't feel I did anything wrong as I was home around 2am, I wasn't arrested, no fighting or anti social behaviour. I understand the club are not happy as we are at the wrong end of the table and I have nothing but total respect for the gaffa and staff. I'm hurt its come to this as we have made a lot of history in the past 5 seasons and I love the club to bits, sorry to all my fans. I hope it gets resolved one way or another, and I'm 100% committed, and never will give less than that. Thanks x #UTP"

You have gone away from £20m or higher to £16m or higher.

I will have £100 with you @ EVS @ £19m or higher if he sells for less, I win, if he sells for more, you win.

And I have £19m on the nose? Obviously void bet if he doesn't go. Needs to be inclusive of all add ons even if the criteria isn't eventually met by the player and not just the up front payment. If that's all good I will take the bet.

Sounds ridiculous from the board, who probably just want him out. I would imagine it was just one of those players acting the pillock with the rest hanging around. If there were more players there that weren't listed as they are much more integral to the team then this would all be a farce.

Yes, you have £19m on the nose.

I am happy with the terms, but bet until 1st September, yeah? I don't really want the bet lasting for the next 5 years :D :D

Could we have it for just this next coming transfer window in January please? You confirm that and it's booked from my end.

Sigh, suppose it is best, don't want it dragging out!

Booked and gl.

you too.

The link below is to a feature length interview with Wilfiried Zaha. Interesting read. He mentions that he will decide about his Palace future in January which doesn't sound like a man averse to leaving but it really won't be too much down to him imo, all about the offer coming in. He does mention how important it was to get championship games under his belt and talked of the sorry tale of John Bostock. In failing elsewhere, that man has helped keep Nathanial Clyne and Wilfried Zaha in the team longer then they would have otherwise, showing just how hard it is to get a game in the first team of a prem club. I also didn't realise we turned down £6m for Zaha in the summer from Reading.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2231988/Wilfried-Zaha-Only-Ronaldo-Messi-better-me.html

In another article, Steve Browett, our co-chairmen has been quoted as saying this, "Whatever they offer, it's nothing compared to the prize of being promoted. We are not a one-man team but he is our star player, and we hope he will be a star player for Crystal Palace next season. Why would we risk our promotion prospects by selling him?"

Dunno what that is worth but those comments are alongside Steve Parish, another co-chairman, saying that £20m isn't even enough. They are driving a hard bargain by the sounds of it, or they don't mind being embarrassed by past statements if they do sell for less than £20m.

Sigh @ footballers. Posh seems to attract this type for some reason.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... d-BMW.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... 5968/.html

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news ... e-1-123577

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ca ... e-18022130

Got trouble with all of the above links? Dunno if anyone else has? Wouldn't mind knowing the gossip on this as well!

Same here ant. Chompy is shite at links.

Useless fenland forum...try again...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014163/Lee-Tomlin-called-police-officer-tramp-offered-BMW.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2345968/.html

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/environment/posh-star-coutts-gets-drink-drive-ban-and-fine-1-123577

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-18022130

The Tomlin headline still makes me roffle

lol, your players enjoy a drink and a drive. Thought that Tomlin was carrying a little weight from when i saw him play against us on the weekend, the fact he is a boozer does not surprise me.

Tomlin is as slim as he's been for ages. Apparently lost 3% of his body weight when he was dropped, which is about 2stone.

Spends half his life in KFC apparently. So much talent, way too many zingers.

Chompy has grant McCann played his way back into the side? Didn't fergie stick him on the transfer List in the summer?

Yuh, McCann was transfer listed in the summer but is back in favour at the moment. Don't see it lasting beyond this season, though, as he's not the right age for Daragh and Darren. They like them to be young and troublesome, not old and troublesome.

My bets are on for the weekend.

Palace win and Boro/draw are both on as a big double and big singles.

Then Huddersfield/draw and Blackpool win are added to make 4 small trebles and a decent sized quadruple.

£1450 wagered with £4146 profit if all bets win.

If Palace win and others fail I am £236 down. If Boro win/draw and other bets lose I am £888 down. If Palace win and Boro win/draw I have £1059 profit. The trebles add to this as well if any of those come in.

To be frank, I got carried away here and lost track of how much I was putting on. Whatever happens, I am capping future sports betting to a reasonable number.

Anyone else got any Championship bets on?

Ant, you are officially nuts!

I don't like my aways at all, but I like Blackpool this weekend away to Bristol City. Also tempted on Stevenage +1 away to Sheffield United at 10/11.

Nothing of much note this weekend.

Ant - I am only going to say this once because I hate people telling others how to live their life but be very careful with your football betting.  You have placed four bets, two including the top two in the league and another including a top six side.  You are way overrating recent form and unless you have a very large bankroll you are seriously overstaking too.  Generally speaking an average bet should probably only be about 2% of your bankroll and a maximum bet never more than about 5% and you should probably only be betting in proper size after you have a decent sample of your bets.  I know this is a bit patronising but I would be fairly surprised if you are a long term winner betting football given the bets you have posted so far.  That isn't to say you couldnt become one just that you might need to do a bit more work first.

I won £2500 last weekend from betting and that is why I think I could get away with this. Should have left it.

You are right though and I am going to calm the fuck down after Saturday.

These bets, are they Huddersfield to draw, or Huddersfield/Draw half-time/full-time?

sorry should have made it clearer, the /draw matches are for that team to get the win or the draw. Basically not to lose.

How do people think their teams are going to get on this weekend?

We will lose 1-0 as w bridge is out!

Well that would do nicely for me for the bet. You guys have been stuttering recently but surely you can never underestimate the Mack-attack?

I fancy us today against the wendies.

Not a great price though.  I expect a big crowd, say 26000.  They sold 4500 away tickets and our lot are coming out for this one as quite a few will stay out and go to the Trent FM arena for the boxing later.

Big day in Notts today.

He is absolutely horrific

CMS is horrific?

Yeh think we'll get stuffed by Forest today...but it is Semedo Day.
Our only chance is getting after your full backs.
3-1 Forest with Semedo scoring a last minute penalty and running the length of the pitch to celebrate with the fans.

He might have been mustard in League 1 but he is too slow, too small and lacks the technical skills to be a good Championship striker. Maybe it's just our system but he just doesn't score, only 10 goals last season.

We'll most likely lose at Bolton today, but at least we have the novelty of seeing how Marcus Tudgay performs.

I like Tudgay....disappointed to see him go out on loan, but Sharp, Cox and Blackstock ahead at the moment.

Palace were sensational.

Ipswich v Posh next weekend. Doesn't get much better than that.

Saw Ipswich today

Oh deary me

Nigel Reo Coker playing holding midfield strolled around at a disinterested half pace, the back four were slow as molasses. If the five of them combined made a full blooded challenge all game I didn't see it

Mick McCarthy will change over half the team in January if he can. So many players mailing it in today

Nigel Reo Coker was quoted as saying under Mick McCarthy they could get promoted THIS season. The bloke is a bit of a joker and generally such a bad attitude.

Got to win our next 2 home games.

Will make the game V Palace pretty deeceee

It's great to see Luke Chambers at Ipswich having a torrid time.  Glad we flogged him in the summer as he was so lazy, and from what Tight saw, he's not changed.

GG Ipswich, you are going down.

I hope so, as it'd be one less spot for us to worry about.

I listened to our game on the commentary and it sounds like a fair point picked up at Bolton.  Tudgay had a chance to win it but Bogdan pulled off a great save by all accounts (they didn't show this on the highlights, so still haven't seen it).

Next up, Cardiff at home on Saturday, then Burnley at home on Tuesday.  Two massive games for us after no wins in the last 6.

Saw Ipswich recently when we hammered them. For the first 20 mins they were on top of us until we cracked them.

I am sure they won't be near the bottom come the end of the season. I don't think Mick McCarthy would allow it and they have a decent squad. Plus their recent revival has been pretty good despite some away day hammerings to high flying teams.

Probably will lay them on Betfair shortly to go down.

As for Barnsley, please go ahead and beat Cardiff. Their away form is pants for a top team in this league and if you got your revival going from that I would probably by a hat and tip it in your direction. I think Barnsley have enough to stay out of the relegation zone too and think that Sheffield Wednesday will be the ones relegated with Peterborough and Bristol City.

Ipswich are looking poor at the moment, but it's going to take some time for MM to pick it up, they will get there eventually and I suspect they may just get out of trouble. Bristol City are doomed, Mcinnes has no idea and in danger of going further adrift in the next few weeks.

Lots of other teams around, but I wouldn't write of Birmingham for going down too, as Lee Clark is definitely not the man.

As for us, I am confident we will be nowhere near the bottom when we get to the midway point, we aren't really getting hammered like others in our games. We are only losing by the odd goal and not really "out" of games and really should have got something at Forest, wasn't bad at league leaders Palace (lost 3-2) and so on.

Ant I dare you to lump on Palace next weekend as favourites at Elland Road

Mick McCarthy brings in...Tyrone Barnett!

You couldn't make it up. Are they trying to sign the top ten bad attitudes in the country?

£312.50 is on at 2.6 placed on Sunday morning. I am backing us to win every game until January. May not with Hull away and Cardiff away but if I go to Leeds and we hammer them then I am going to go on it.

Don't think many peeps aside from the fans of the teams we beat quite know know what we are about. We are very good for our spot at the top and long may it continue.

I can just imagine McCarthy beating one of them up after they say one word out of place on Monday morning as an example to the others not to Fuck with him. Probably all that team needs, a right good kick up the arse. They have won two from four so every faith in McCarthy to get them out and I couldn't help but back them to beat Peterborough.

I think whatever happens here, you are not going to take notice on us.

I would personally hate to be betting on my own team & also be hoping they win for progression, as losing a game would affect the bank balance and definitely put a massive downer on me that day.

If you keep betting like this, you are going to lose. The whole "bet on Palace every game, but apart from against decent teams" is a massive contradiction lol. if they go and beat Leeds, I expect them to be short prices from then on.

This is the Championship, Ant. I would take a point from 70% of games in this league if we was top of the league

Hows that right? If you are top you need to be winning more than 30%. In fact for the championship, to win the league you basically need 2 points every game, so a win and a draw every two games. We are doing better than that in our recent run.

I know I am a mug punter, I enjoy betting on the championship and I normally break even betting on it. It is when I go out of the league I know most about that I don't maintain break even and lose. This year I am up, so I am going to continue betting until I get closer to break even and stop with a small profit if it gets down to it.

Thinking about going up to the Sheffield GPS to play day 1b on the Friday and if I get knocked out I am relatively close to Leeds to go and watch us on the Saturday, so a win win.

Palace are favs at Elland Road?  That doesn't scream value to me.

Doesn't scream huge value to me either but I have seen what we have been doing to teams of late and then seen Leeds against Millwall at the den and think we will win 2-0. I am backing us until we either don't look as good as we do or the bookies really come in on our pricing and make a backing untenable.

I could see us winning all our games aside from Cardiff away and Hull away before January. Without doubt that is the mug side of me coming out as well there but I have not seen dominating football like this from Palace in all my years of watching and I am entitled to bet on us wildly and enjoy a good brag.

How old are you?  Are you old enough to remember the team that came 3rd in the league for example?  Just trying to get some context to your comments.

You got ahead of the price for a while and made good money.  Nothing gained from giving it all back.  As DungBeetle pointed out, finding your team favourite at Elland Road suggests that the market has realised how good your team is, and that the value has gone.  

You have enough of a sweat going on your season long promotion bets to not need any additional sweat on each game.

Barnsley have signed Emile Sinclair on loan from Peterborough.

The fact that they've allowed him to leave for a relegation rival suggests to me this is a tactical move and he is, in fact, utter shite.

Awaiting Chompy's confirmation.

You are right Doobs and but I still think we have value at 2.6 here, for sure. It is alright to say we are favourites here so the value has gone but we are literally just favourites. Anything below 2.4 I wouldnt have touched, but I think there is value in every Palace game I have backed of late.

I have backed 4/5 of the last Palace games and seen victory at odds that weren't befitting to my viewpoint of what we should have been priced up at. I am not the best at knowing what the market value should be but I do know from my own radar what odds I would like for a Palace game and if there is value there I am in.

I have made a lot of money Championship betting this season and have been unfortunate in the bets that didn't get there. When I feel I have lost a good eye for it I will stop. Obv the reason is in all my doubles Palace were there and won but I put them in after all!

I was right about Palace at 11/1 for promotion as good value when I tipped that, I believe there is still value now. Don't worry I am not a complete fool I will back down when I see the time is right to. But what much have I done wrong with the Championship betting this season aside from the amount wagered? Which I have now tamed to a nice level. £425 wagered for Saturday, down from £1450 last week.

Sinclair is very, very quick but can't hold the ball up to save his life and wouldn't win a header if he was the only player on the pitch. We picked him up from Macclesfield. As someone on the Poshy forum said, 'Keep signing players from Macclesfield and eventually you'll turn into Macclesfield.'

He was gonna be shipped out even before the nightclub outing as his contract expires in the summer. Gl sir, enjoy.

I don't feel so concerned about this now.  Pretty much all of Hill's signings have had a Rochdale connection and he's pretty adept at getting his players to step up a level.

Given that our current financial status has him working on a "Keep signing players from Macclesfield, but then please sell them to Chelsea" basis this makes a degree of sense.  As for the bad boy antics, he'll join Jacob Mellis and Kelvin Etuhu in the squad already!

Cheers for the info.

Rumours circulating that Jonathan Greening is joining on loan too!

2 strikers and a midfielder so far this week.  Unfortunately, our glaring requirement is a centre back!

Dwight Gayle, who's our player in the summer anyway by all accounts, joins on loan. Can't do any worse than Sinclair or Barnett.

George Thorne is a nice signing too, will sit in front of the defence and soak it up, good prospect.

Pleasing signing and one that means Bostwick will be able to drop back into defence. That will make a big difference.

And now Buszaky from Portsmouth too!  Still no sign of a CB though :(

Akos Buzsaky playing for Keith Hill.

I'm getting a hard on just thinking about it.  ;kev;

Neil Warnock has been on the charm offensive saying how he feels Palace will be able to maintain their run and go up automatically. I know only some of our squad still exist that played under Warnock but he is very well liked by Palace fans and he is clearly at it with the mind games.

I am shocked with where Leeds are in the table and would never have thought Warnock would be having so much trouble this season. Surely shouldn't be long until they are pushing for playoffs. Only takes one run and he took Palace from a similar position before into the top 6.

Argh, so that's what losing feels like.

Peterborough got a decent result today which is good to see. Can't believe Middlesbrough lost 3-1 at home to Bristol City and Millwall are now the team to watch out for. 9 games unbeaten I think!

"Paul ‏@paulv1986

Well done to Leicester best side I've seen at hillsborough, totally outclassed us. Your going up. #lcfc #swfc "


chirp, I don't know if we'll get top two but it was a decent set of results today


Leeds away on Tuesday at the wrong time....

With bates gone and the rub of the green we can beat anyone in the division. Leeds have been poor coz we ain't brought quality players in and bates has not spent a penny for 6 months until the buyout happened. Added to this 3-4 of our better players been out for a few months meant a shambling run of results. Everyone was literally waiting for the takeover and it seems the players were too. The two loan signings yesterday gave us the core down the middle strength we needed. I think with McCormack fit and two, three more signings xmass we will compete for the playoffs maybe 6-10 spots. 

Hoping you know more about the match today than I. Was it a fair result? All I am getting is biased opinion. I normally wait for the manager interviews before I judge how close a game was as they are normally forthright in what they think about how the game went and if they try to bullshit normally it is as clear as day.

What I heard from very biased Palace fans is that you got two deflected goals. We dominated play for the last 70 mins without converting when we should have.

To me thought it sounds like you probably aggravated us, hassled us and were good for your win.

I think we now have a battle on our hands at the top of the table and oddly enough I really don't think Millwall can be ruled out of things! You have been going through a torrid time of late, but Sheffield Wednesday is hardly a team that was going to show much resistance, they have been playing very poorly of late.

Wide open at the top and I think it is nigh on impossible to pick a team that is going to win the Championship from here.

No idea about the game. Playing with my daughters all day :( hope we hussled and really ground out the win though.

If that is what you want you have the right man for the job. As I said before you have, imo, a great manager, who will propel you up the table. You are talking to a fan from only one or two clubs that will have something nice to say about Warnock though!

Jesus. Should have beaten Bolton by 7 today.

Hit bar FOUR (3 times in a 5-6 minute spell) times, and missed a pen. Freedman said on bbc interview 'that was one of the best performances i have ever seen in this division'.

Should really have 7-8 more points than we do - someone will get hit for SEVEN soon.

Shame murray is suspended for hull and not the game V us!

Ha, hilarious that you were on the ball to know he was suspended at all with the 5 yellows but fair play, shows you are quaking in your boots.

Just heard Holloway and seen match report. It sounds like we had the best of it in the first half and should have at least gone a goal up, then we could have really gone on top of them. As it stood they got into it and made it difficult. Apparently there is a penno decision we should have had but our rep for pens this season has meant we don't get given stonewallers so I won't be surprised if it is blatant.

I am really buoyed by what I have heard about the game from Palace tbh and I will be placing a minimum bet on Palace to beat Hull at 3.3. I know am taking heed of Doobs' advice on protecting what I have already won this season and what I can stand to make if Palace go up. £50 max from every round of championship matches. I did get brutally buggered today as I had Ipswich and Palace and I did tip Boro but they got embarrassed!

Always said Murray is quality. Fits our system perfectly.

Hoskins should be in the first 11 by next weekend though who looks v.v.good. Drop CMS and Barnes, for Hoskins and Dobbie, we will destroy teams at home.

Leeds and Hull away and then you next at home. Testing times.

Us at home though have been equally if not more excellent. I am tempted to put a bet on for us not to lose at home all season for like a fiver if there were odds available. Not as a wild because that is what I think will happen bet, more as I think whatever odds get proposed are going to be a little bit of value.

Do I just ring a bookies up and ask for a special request in this instance?

What price are you looking for?

What should I expect, if you were to price it up? I was thinking it would be about 80/1.

I am sure plenty of people would accommodate you at 80/1.

You might have got 80/1 at the start of the season, but we are nearly half way through.

I was thinking maybe 16/1

80/1 would be about right for rest of the season home and away!

Yeh I got it completely wrong. Worked it out now by calculating our odds to not lose at home in one game and put that to the power of 14 for the rest of our home league games and get about 16/1

I would probably take that on for £20

Comfortably best side at Hillsborough all season, but again we wasn't out of it, although I thought we could get something.

If it wasn't for us somehow getting second last season, then Dave Jones would be at the job centre.

Its fair to say Palace dominated the game in the first half and would have deserved to go in 1 up.

But in the 2nd half we grew more and more into it and the fans got more and more behind the side. Our first goal was a bit of a bolt from the blue, cross then a scramble. But after that we had a nice spell of our own for 10 mins and wasn't a huge shock when we got our 2nd. Then I felt Palace should probably have a penalty when Zaha went wrong side of Byram and was tugged slightly but it wasn't stonewall as there wasn't much contact.

Palace came back though with Holloway being Holloway sending 3 strikers on and it was horrible viewing right at the end with Palace absolutely piling on the pressure for the equalizer. Tonge cleared one of the line with seconds left.

Really enjoyed the match, good atmosphere, competitive game with the referee allowing the tackles to fly in from both sides. Would expect to see Palace win lots of games and lose some games and finish maybe in the playoff positions.

Gotta give a special mention to young Sam Byram who probably won't survive many transfer windows with us, he had Zaha in his pocket almost all the game.

Blackpool 23/20 to beat Birmingham in the week. Decent price.

Thanks for the report.

Yeh Zaha has been off his usual game since the England debut. I think he has been way more irritable too and he hasn't got used to the extra attention he is getting from opposing players verbally yet. Always flailing his arms, posturing, annoyed by something that has been said and never being able to settle. I think opposing teams are starting to latch onto this and Zaha will need to mature. At home though, with the rally of the home support behind him he deals with this better.

I saw the Murray chance and thought he was unlucky. Small edges in this game can change the course of the result and if that goes in I think we can go on to punish you.

It looked like you deserved the win and a draw wouldn't have been an outrageous result either. I do disagree with you though that you think we will settle in the playoffs, and I think Brighton is the game that we definitely will be looking to get back into winning ways and get the show back on the road. If we get anything from Hull in midweek it is an added bonus, which will be tough without Murray.

I just think that Palace will be too strong for most teams at home, and that if we get just a tad more luck away from home, by getting the early goal we can go on to control games. I am only so confident in Palace this season as I have seen the opposition teams and no one is better than us, currently. So just have to hope we don't get injuries to Murray, Jedinek or Zaha, as then we could well then look mediocre.

"Hoskins should be in the first 11 by next weekend though who looks v.v.good. "

I hope it's not Will Hoskins you are talking about or you will likely find youself let down I'm afraid.  Looked great for us for the odd game and then will vanish for the next 10 games.

Like what Watford fans said about will Buckley? (He is better than zaha).

:) You manager is a lunatic.

Based on yesterday's performance I'm surprised that Cardiff are top of the league.  Their win was down to our total inability to defend corners but I've seen far better performances at Oakwell from the likes of Palace, Forest, Blackpool, Huddersfield, etc.  They also seemed determined to time waste as much as possible when 2-0 up with 40 minutes to go, which I found bizarre.

If anything, it's highlighted how open the Championship is this season.  There is no standout team among the contenders.

Why? Buckley is better. Zaha might have more potential, but Buckley is currently better and twice as prolific.

Buckley better than Zaha? Never!

Read that Poyet said similar recently but all his geese are swans tbh.

Rightfully so. Several occasions teams have brought off their full back BEFORE half time V buckley. Championship stats:

Buckley, 82 games - 18 goals

Zaha, 100 games - 11 goals

Hopefully Bridge plays V palace so can see how he fairs V a premiership quality player....

Do you not remember the goal he scored against your lot at the Amex? Was naughty in quality. That was Zaha last season as well, running at much less than what he is capable now.

You may well get a lame performance from him seeing as he is going through a pretty dry spell at the moment. Hopefully though he picks things up against Hull on Tuesday and then is primed for a bestial performance on Saturday.

I don't know Buckley as a player to comment really, but despite the stats it is doubtful he is better and as soon as you see both in action you will probably decide yourself that Zaha is the better player, or at least the most valuable if you don't think so.

It may be that Buckley is the more well rounded player, whose finishing and final ball exceeds that of Zaha, but he won't compare in most other qualities that have Zaha priced at around £20m. I wonder what Buckley is priced at, or would sell for?

Precisely my thoughts Sheriff. That is why I am of the thought Palace are currently shading it at the top in terms of quality and I really cannot wait to face Cardiff away on boxing day and hope so much that we get 6 points away to Hull, and at home to Brighton, as we want to pick the run up again immediately.

Need Zaha firing on all cylinders again to make us that out and out table topping side.

Super win for Forest at Wolves this weekend.  Would never have had us winning there.

Watched it on the internet and we were excellent, full value IMO.

How is Andy Reid doing? Is he still a tub of lard and not all that or is he coming to the fore?

It's wide open at the top for a team from any part of this league to go on a run and make the playoffs or above happen, it's amazing to be honest. Not one team has showed dominance. Hopefully though it is Palace by January. A man can dream.

I went to Palace at home and away, the game changing was our left back going off for Vincelot, then Zaha looked v good against one of the the slowest players in the league. He won a penalty in the game at Selhurst too, but so did Buckley. Buckley was out injured for the home game.

Zaha is worth more, a lot more as he is 3 years younger and has high potential. The last two players Palace shipped out (Bostock, Moses) haven't really done much. He is probably worth about the same as what Oxlade went for (£10M??). Buckley is probably worth about £6M.

Buckley rippeda new asshole into Santon when Newcastle lost here last season in the fa cup when they were 3rd/4th in the league.

Did Noone play? Never really been impressed with Cardiff, got no idea how they are up there. They have Maynard to come back soon too, they are just very consistent it seems. There is definitely a Reading to explode up the table this season. Think Watford can come 2nd, very good side.

Seen Buckley and Zaha play, Buckley is definitely the better player right now, as has been stated though he prob wont get much better and Zaha is improving all the time. As i think Ant has already stated multiple times teams have changed the full back marking him at HT because he causes that many problems.

Not seen Buckley play or really know what he is about so appreciate that you guys think he is better as you are both more knowledgable, as you have seen both.

Zaha has been pocketed by full backs this season and I always wonder why. The left back at Derby really gave him problems, he had to switch to beating their right back which he found much easier. Though I would say as he is only 20, he probably is not privy to the better full backs tactics to defeat what he is about now. He will soon be developing counter strategies against the better players and being a great player.

Look forward to the game on Saturday. Should be a feisty affair.

!!

Toasty life if you haven't 'done much' yet get snapped up by the European Champions!

He has?

Lol at the notion that Buckley is better than Zaha.

We had him at Watford and bit Brighton's hands off when they offered us £900k or whatever it was.

From reading the posts people are actually serious that Buckley is better.  Unreal.   :D

Hoskins better than Nugent as well lads?

Both people saying Buckley is better are both Brighton supporters. Nice to see I may not be the only over zealous supporter on here!

Did you not got to Watford V Brighton? Guess you'll have to watch him r4pe a new asshole into the next fullback at the end of December :) Another example of the player marking him who got booked and subbed off - taken off at HALF time. Hopefully Cassetti or whoever it was plays in the next game, will be fun :)

Palace fans think Zaha is better than Bale. They also thought Moses was the best thing since sliced bread (hes not).

Zaha can't create chances and doesn't have a great scoring record so struggling to see what the fuss is all about.

What makes it worse Ant is that one of those used to support Palace but moved to the dark side!!

Without seeing both players week in week out it is not possible for anyone to compare as all players can have an off day.
What i will say though is that in 25 years of watching Palace i have not seen a player as skillful or someone that excites the crowd like Zaha does, and that includes Ian Wright and Andy Johnson.

And just lol at the comments re Bostock and Moses from Anthony!
Bostock left us at the age of 16 before we could even bring through his talent because his head was turned by money.  And Moses, well he established himself in the Premiership before being signed by the European Champions!  Would love to see how much the last 2 players Brighton produced through their academy and then sold on have done!

Nahki Wells is better than both.

No bias here obviously

I just spat my tea all over my computer reading that comment.

I for one believe that Zaha still has a lot to learn, he can be very petulent and loses his head when things go against him. He is by no means the finished article but to even compare Buckley to him is just an insult.
Do you seriously think that Roy Hodgson has ever even considered putting Buckley in an England squad?????

What? I have supported Brighton and gone since the age of 4.

Where have I bigged up our youth policy? You are the ones who say its basically the best in the country when you have only produced two players (one whose a bench warmer for top 6 side) and another whose a championship player.

Gareth Barry from our youth academy, and done more than any Palace youth product ever will.

He has chucked him in in an attempt to lock him up in 4 years time.

If you read what i have said Zaha has more potential. He isn't better now, he spends half the time diving and moaning.

Would be scary to see how many Murray would score with Buckley helping him out.

"Zaha can't create chances"

This comment is absurd.

"Hopefully Cassetti or whoever it was plays in the next game, will be fun"

Cassetti is a bad match up for Buckley as he has no pace.  They'll put Doyley on him, or Neuton I'd imagine.

Gotta say "Zaha can't create chances" is a ridic comment.

On Saturday i remember saying that I can see why Glen Murray scores so many with Zaha on one side and the other skillful black lad on the other side

Why?

If you believe what Palace players say about him he should be getting 30 assists a season minimum. He has THREE this season.

Why does he have three assists?

Lol.

Nice one mate.

Variance.

Plus its not just the one assist that "creates" a chance. Numerous times on Sat he raced through with the ball for about 30 yards then played it to someone in a nice position who then laid it off to someone else for a shot.

I was talking about Flushy, he supported Palace until Brighton got a new ground and decided that he wanted to go there!

I didnt say you had bigged up your youth policy.  You were slating 2 players to come out of ours and i just wondered who you had produced lately.

You are also forgetting that as well as Bostock and Moses we have produced at least 5 others in the last few years that have gone on to play Prem football.

Barry went to Villa when he was 16 so i give them a lot of credit for his career  ;)

True, sadly they don't produce stats at champ level for 'chances created'.

"Can't create chances" was sarcastic comment but he his final ball is not as good as his dribbling/skill/control levels.

Buckley tore your full backs apart too, but we don't have a championship striker in our starting 11 at the moment to finish them off.

Brent in the thread to add realistic view  :)

Must be a load of other Palace fans doing that. Would explain why you can only get 16k at home using Groupon, losing all your fans to a more prosperous club ;)

What are your predictions for Saturday?

Not going to bite at that comment except to say that if we had a brand new stadium we would fill it for the first 3 or 4 years.

I just hope Saturday that we play like we have been in previous home games as Bolassie and Zaha have been awesome and if we do then i have no doubts we will win.  However it is a local derby and will no doubt be tight and tense and probably not a lot different to last season's 1-1 draw.

Sorry I don't pick the team.  I watched Buckley for a year and a half.  He is sporadically exciting, but to compare him to Zaha makes you look foolish imho.

Must be a load of other Palace fans doing that. Would explain why you can only get 16k at home using Groupon, losing all your fans to a more prosperous club ;)

What are your predictions for Saturday?
[/quote]

Not going to bite at that comment except to say that if we had a brand new stadium we would fill it for the first 3 or 4 years.

I just hope Saturday that we play like we have been in previous home games as Bolassie and Zaha have been awesome and if we do then i have no doubts we will win.  However it is a local derby and will no doubt be tight and tense and probably not a lot different to last season's 1-1 draw.
[/quote]

Fair enough. Doubt Bolassie and Zaha have come up against a better combination of full backs as Bruno / Bridge ever before though.

Shame we don't play you when Dikgacoi is @ the african nations, as Vicente will be back then :)

I'd say the same thing if I let him go for a million quid ;)

Saw Buckley at Leicester this season. Hugely impressive. Don't care about him versus Zaha, both very good indeed

Would like to throw Knockaert into the mix please. French U21 regular, all the tricks, just settling into English football. Headed for the top. Probably not with us

Not 100% sure Poyet is the man to take them up...

I love this video of him post Leeds game, anger much?

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8220651/Brighton-boss-Gus-Poyet-slams-hypocrite-Neil-Warnock-after-Leeds-nick-2-2-draw

2mins in.

You do realise Poyet was quoted as saying Zaha wasn't as good as Buckley, last month I think, which is why I think Brighton fans have rallied behind the viewpoint. If most Brighton fans watched Zaha week in week out, they would laugh at the suggestion imo, but I can't be sure as I haven't seen Buckley properly so to judge would be unfair.

ChampionshipStats

2 wins in 15 for Sheff Wed;

7 defeats in 10 for Barnsley;

4 losses in 5 for Birmingham;

3pts out of 24 for Wolves


Which of these teams turns round for the better first?

Wolves?

(contrarian value betting klaxon)

I'd say Wolves.  Definitely not Birmingham.  I've seen them a few times and they look genuinely useless under Clark.

Barnsley. Other three teams are pretty clueless.

Evatt needs to have a word with himself.

He was terrible at QPR.

Holloway saved his carer, he should be worshipping at the altar to Ollie.

Not trashing him.

Was talking to someone who should know about these things.

Knockaert clearly the best player in the division according to him.

Charlton might interesting in the near future..not sure the odds on them being promoted but if they are long i might have a punt.

Future investment (substantial ) inc.

you have a connection there don't you?

Yeah got a whisper about it today and 40/1 33/1 to be promoted if they get some investment for the Xmass transfer window might push for a playoff spot..who knows...

I guess we will wait and see. Leeds 9/1 to get promoted...

Ned to bin Powell before any promotion challenge imo.

Nice guy, not so good tactically.

You know they been skint for a fair few years now right? and I mean busto....they just been waiting for some major investors to come to push on. Powell done good really and they have 100% faith in him right now.

Since Pardew went they having been living month to month. I remember Parkinson could not take the team on a preseason camp as they could not afford to go anywhere and stay in a hotel. One of the sponsors pulled out 20k cash and told them to go away for the week somewhere :)  He had no chance of getting them playing well with $ restrictions.

Who you know there? One of my mates dad was director there for years until December 2010.

Heard a few whispers lately as well about possible investment. As you say money has been tight, apparently a backer pulled out in the summer meaning we had a very small budget paying money for just one player. Think it could be very interesting if Powell was given some serious financial backing in the transfer window,we are def a few quality midfielders away from a play off push for now though. But who knows!

Why dis?

I knew there was no money to spend, but I didn't realise it was that bad.

Every single time I've seen Charlton play in the last couple of seasons, i haven't been impressed but they have almost always got out of it with a piece of individual skill, which can hardly be attributed to the manager!

I thought you meant Herbie on here! :)

I see Mr Forestieri has his very own thread on the Sheff Wed forum after last night's mauling.

A habitual pessimist I am getting excited now, so that will be a home defeat by Barnsley on Saturday I imagine.

http://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/184814-forestieri/

Hornets still available at 25-1 to win the league.  Not the worst bet in the world given the huge squad, the run we are on and lights out front players.  I got 200-1 for peanuts about six weeks back - we live in hope.

Tried to get a chimp on T'Hornets to get promoted at 16-1 a few weeks ago with Sid and was offered £10 @ 16-1 and another £90 @ 12-1! Name and shame ftw.

Settled for 12-1 elsewhere but not for as much unf.

Current 8-1 still looks pleasing enough given a pretty soft December schedule imo.

Said on this forum at the time we played Watford they looked very good, so not suprised by this.

Never seen a team move the ball around so quickly at this level. Need a better full back and striker though IMO.

Yes - the Poodle is a fine left back, but Casetti, for all his good work going forward is too slow.

Not sure about a striker though - Geijo has only just started after being injured and he's prolific in the Spanish second division (which admittedly isn't as strong as Championship).  Deeney, Vydra, Forestieri all plenty good enough at this level.

Didn't realise Geijo had come back.

You'll be in the playoffs 5PM on Saturday, can't see brighton or hull winning!

I have a sinking feeling that Watford's promotion challenge may be about to have a serious blow.  Isn't this the sort of stuff that Swindon were hammered for in the past?  :(  It's the that fecking turd of an old owner as well - he has already knocked the club for £2million apparently and now this.  Furious.

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/10080321.Bassini_and_Watford_charged_with_misconduct/

For a moment I thought you were going to put this down to the strength of tomorrow's opponents.

Sigh!

Huddersfield 2 Leeds 4.......

Palace was great yesterday, but it did hinge on a very early sending off which killed the game.

I can't believe Palace were 2.7 before kick off and I got on that on top of the 2.25 I had earlier in the week.

I think we will beat Blackpool next week and would say 1.95 is about right for the price, anything above that needs to be seriously considered.

Craig Mackail-Smith had a 1 on 1 that he missed that would have made it 1-1 if he had scored and then you can never know what would have happened then. I think Speroni shocked him by staying on his line despite him being clean through from the half way line and he took one too many touches in shock. Speroni didn't even have to touch the ball with defense of the goal, just had to jolt pretend to come out to put off their man.

I hope Cardiff lose today so we could possibly build a gap at the top by the time we play them at their gaff on boxing day. That would be a 6 pointer and if we win that that could well be the start of our out and out dominance

Would like to say though that if Murray or Jedinek get injured we are in big trouble as they are essential. Bolassie is starting to impose himself more than Zaha of late but I think that has to do with the man marking they have on him leaving Bolassie more free to strut his stuff. He's beginning to get a great cross in too which backed by the trusted left foot of Garvan means we can constantly be a threat.

Really enjoying things at the moment and really suggest to start backing us at home against most teams if you see over 2.0.

Great result for Palace yesterday. Looks certain now, that they will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

I do think we can start to get after them a bit, in the near future.
Feels like they are running a little bit above expectation, and are getting things going their way, more often than not, at the minute.

They've got a tricky run of games coming up, and if they start to get too short, will be ripe to oppose.

Yesterday appears to have been the tipping point in terms of fan opinion on Keith Hill.  Until now the majority opinion on the forums has been pro-Hill, but it's now swayed the other way.

Suddenly, I'm in the minority, which doesn't bode well for us. :(

Who do you support Jakally?

Most of what you have said is correct, but what I would add is to not oppose them at home unless it really is juicy because if you look at our record we haven't conceded in three scoring 11 I believe. We would have beaten Millwall aswell by four goals if not for the sending off. Beaten Cardiff and Blackburn as well, which at the time were two teams of note in the league and Cardiff more so now.

Away from home we really aren't that bad too and I am dissappointed we faced Leeds when we did with them on the up.

We do win a lot of games over drawing them and when we have got the draw or loss there normally has been a good excuse to why we were slightly unlucky.

We beat Leicester away when they had a 100% record, with many of their fans saying we were the best team there all season. Wolves we beat 2-1  away when they were top 5, kicking off their dysmal run.

We are just generally a tasty team that I now feel shouldn't be seen as running above expectation in the sense that the fall will be coming shortly. We should be seen as a team that has realised their true potential this year and are now comfortably holding their own. If we looked at all shaky on our run I would be the first to admit and I was worried about yesterday, but I think we are the best team in the league.

As soon as Cardiff's home form tumbles, which I think it will as they haven't been amazingly dominant in games, we will be the only outstanding candidates for the league title with the main threat coming from Leicester.

What must Dougie Freedman be thinking? He assembled a great team on a mediocre budget and left when he was reaping the awards only for someone else to step in and basically get the plaudits for the truly dogged work that led to where we are now. I have no real regrets over him leaving and he is a Palace legend. I just feel upset we couldn't possibly have gone up to the prem with a living club legend at the helm.

Now we have a manager that is well versed in the prem survival fight and the second time round could see better results, if we get there ofc!

How did everyone else's team get on yesterday or how do you feel about your chances if playing today?

Stdd during a relegation season unfortunately.

Loads of tex and tweets to Radio Fens FM yesterday calling for Fergie Jnr's head, which is pathetic. The only thing he's been guilty of is bringing in too many problem kids. Otherwise, he's had us promoted three times and is the best we've ever had.

Barnsley and Posh aren't big enough clubs to compete in the Championship long term. Fans just need to accept it.

What a player Will Hughes of Derby looks

Only 17-18, came out of Repton School

Already got Man U and Arsenal scouting him, and they were at Leicester yesterday

One pass that split our defence for their goal was sublime


In your notebooks, the next Nick Powell!

That's a much harder sell to our fans because this division, historically, is our natural level (we're way ahead of anyone else for time spent at this level).  Very few seem to recognise the gulf in financial parity in this league compared to even 10 years ago.  It's like Premiership MkII these days between the haves and have nots.

More than half the division has had parachute payments in the recent past, several big overseas owners have come into the division looking to get their teams up, quick (most doomed to disappointment, as its just a numbers game, not everyone can pass through the funnell to the Premiership) if you are Barnsley or the like its a struggle

Not sure what else Keith Hill is expected to do. He's bought well, spots talent, keeps the team competitive. Without a lot of further investment to compete with the higher budgets what is he meant to do?

Replacing him is not guarantee of success, and will just lead to instability and player turnover.

Couldn't agree more with this, but a wider base is now starting to quote stats - 8 wins in 2012, none in the last 9 games.

Memories are proving very short to when we ripped Birmingham apart a few weeks ago and were playing some of the best football I've seen for a while, albeit struggling to score many goals.

A big problem for him is that fans are clamouring for Sir Bobby of Hassell to be picked now and his refusal to pick him (justified IMO, as he's not been effective this season when selected), but more importantly his failure to bring in the commanding centre back we desperately need (baffling, and deserving of criticism) are also factors.  I have to hope that the Board hold their nerve, but it will get more much
difficult from here on in.

Good time for you to be playing us next week.

Well dunk is an idiot, poor pass by Bruno to him though.

Murray dived for first penalty too.

Wasn't that impressed by palace but always hard against ten men.

Bolasie looked top notch though.

Agree with all of that.

You looked quite sharp up until the sending off and I think it would have been a great contest.

Yeah hard to judge when down to ten but was right decision. Thought it was going to be another 5-0!

Injury crisis now

El abd
Dunk
Bridge
Bruno
Painter

All out injured, so we have two defenders in our whole squad!

Leicester looked very very good last night too.

Interested to read the above post, its stopped me backing Brighton next week @ 8/5 at Charlton.

As decent as Palace are at home, the 3/1 Blackpool can't last.

What does Fred think about Watford at 2.4 to beat Hull at home?

Seems a good price on us given our form.  I have healthy respect for Hull but I was expecting closer to evens for the Watford win.

Well, Forest were absolutely awful again for the 2nd time in a week.  Our gaffer set us up to stifle a well organised Hull side, resulting in a drab affair.

What happened to the home side pressing and the away side coming to stop us?  Oh wait, it's O'driscoll !

Laying Forest at home every week will pay off....our home record is woeful.

Palace seem to have such pace in their side and are a great attacking force, after watching a few of their recent games I cant see them falling down the table much. One of the best teams I seen in this division for a few years.

Brighton were a tad unlucky granted, but bar the 1v1 they missed it was all Palace.

Watford will get promoted this season or next. My old man's life long supporter moans every game about how tez they are lol, still loves it thou. This yr he says they playing gd stuff.

Lump on! [  ] i have

Come on you 'ornsssss

I think the Xmas period for Watford will be interesting, how many of the loan Italians are used to playing 3 times a week in god awful weather in the middle of Yorkshire before? Zola getting Watford up, blimey there's a thought.

On at 12-1  :)

They have a soft December after Hull this weekend

I snapped 12's when the investment was announced early July, but when they brought nobody of note over summer wrote it off really, looks like a sweat now.

On at 220/1 to win the championship if they have a good december will be cashing some out obv :-)

Got 11/1 for Palace promotion on the 27th of October, just one game after Dougie Freedman left us. We were 3rd/4th at the time I believe and cruising. Couldn't believe the price so lumped on for £200. Looking alright at the moment.

Would be a lovely double celebration if we get there.

So on the value front I think I am trumping you guys for the time being.  ;nana;

yh agreed Acid. dunno wtf the Watford team will be after xmas

After Xmas Watford are apparently signing Forestieri, Vydra, Abdi and Poodle on 5 year contacts.  Doesn't stop Udinese taking them back though as effectively we all own the same pool of players.  More likely to be a couple of new players if anything though as the Pozzos know how much there is in the Premier League money wise.

For the bets I'd be more worried about them getting a 10 point penalty for financial misconduct under the old owners.

I am going to the Hull game which seems a good test so will report back.

"how many of the loan Italians are used to playing 3 times a week in god awful weather in the middle of Yorkshire before"

The thing in our favour here is the squad is so big.  Zola has rotated when we have 3 games in a week so far to good effect.  Two typical teams would be:

Almuina, Doyley, Poodle, Hoban, Hall, Ekstrund, Chabolah, Yeates, Hogg, Forestieri, Deeney
Almiuina, Casetti, Anya, Neuton, Nosworthy, Hall, Abdi, Eustace, Murray, Vydra, Geijo

Both strong teams - the second one is arguably stronger (but has been the lesser used so far)

Millwall battered not a suprise, overated average team. Kinda suprised Watford lost, seems Hull may push harder for playoffs than first thought.

Good point for us at Leicester.  Listening to the commentary I went from despair at 2pts lost with their late equaliser to relief that it wasn't worse as the seemed to have countless near misses after that.

We drop into the bottom 3 on GD for the first time.  Next week's televised game vs Sheff Wed is now huger than huge.  I'm pretty sure Hill's tenure won't survive a defeat in that game.

Argh.

Was on the Red Brazil at 10/1.

Pain

Did anyone see the end of the Weds v Brzzie game?

Ref doesn't give an obvious penalty to Weds, ball ends up in the back of the net, ref disallows it for unsportsmanlike conduct for the protests at not giving a penalty.

Never seen that before.

Dave Jones isn't the luckiest manger around, is he?

On top of giving BC two pretty soft penalties.

You couldn't make it up.

Two poor teams although BC deserved at least a draw.

To be fair, they both looked clear cut pens to me.

Were you there? Did you hear a whistle before he disallowed the goal?

Thoughts on Will Hughes?

Looks like he will be an unbelievable player. Looks better than Oxlade did @ 17 (league 1).

 :)up

Any thoughts on Charlie Austin and how much he would cost if he was up for sale?

Great finisher.

Probably would go for the same amount Shane Long did.

Sorry Camel, only just seen your post.

Yes I was there, didn't hear the whistle but he may have blown before the goal.

I've not seen the replays of the penalties, daft challenge by our defender for the first and a bit of ball hitting our centre forwards arm for the second but that's the way it goes.

I cant see Jones changing things now. He signed 16 players in the summer but yesterday put out a side made up of almost all last season's players.

He looks like he's lost the players big time. It's a right old mess.

I had Bristol City at 11/4  ;)

Watch out for Watford.

There gonna come with a massive finish...

I took the nipper to Watford v Hull and it was pretty insipid stuff.  He was on angry birds after about 30 mins.

Watford were missing Abdi and Forestieri and it is clear that without this pair they are a shadow of the team that has done so well.  If you are looking to back the Hornets this year I would advise checking that at least one of these guys is on the teamsheet first.

Hull were..........dull.  But efficient and competent.  Plenty of disturbing the flow of the game - the referee stopped the game three times in the first half alone with a Hull guy needing treatment.  That said - they deserved their win.  I wouldn't want to watch them each week but they are very solid and could well make the playoffs.

Almuina had a howler for the 2nd Hull goal in my opinion.  Looked straight at him from the free kick (but well hit).   Watford huffed and puffed but the moves kept breaking down around the box without Abdi to pull the strings and Forestieri to provide the spark up front.  It might be a year too soon for Watford this year unless they can get another accomplished central midfielder.  On the positive side the Watford centre backs look excellent (Hoban/Hall/Ekstrand).  They are tough but can carry the ball from defence as well.  Hoban will be worth £5 million in  a few years I think.  I'm going to the Forest game in a couple of weeks and hope for a big improvement.

About £6m?

I like Jones, but this has been too much for me & he should be a gonner if we lose to Barnsley. I was going to go myself, but £27? really?

PS - Ant, seen lots of rumours that Zaha is going to X, Y & Z club, but for £10m, not anywhere near the £19m! I'll let you buy out for £70 :) :)

Poyet finally admitting defeat that CMS is shite I think.

Big transfer fee striker lined up to come in Jan in our local paper.

Should have won every single home game this season if we had a striker in Murray's calibre.

It seems some of the Palace fans are not happy with Ian at the moment after a little blip and even losing a two goal lead at Birmingham, thought Ant?

As for my own, it's like watching paint dry and you can see it in Jones' face that he wants to get GTFO out of the club, he looked shattered watching before and after the game. I was tempted to go to Barnsley myself, but after seeing it was £27 a ticket & the fact I have been before I declined. Another poor showing of football, but thank god Barnsley are the lowest scorers in the league. Seems a bit weird that there main goal threat at the end of the match was Marlon Harewoord, who is often coming from the bench quite a lot.

I still believe we will be OK, because Mandaric is here, but who knows.

I still think Bristol City are the definites for going down, they are comfortable losers most weeks, whilst we lose by one goal more often than not.

Poyet admits CMS is shit by selling to a Premiership club for more than Brighton paid?

I wouldn't be so sure about Mandaric. Yes the finance might be there to strengthen in January (and I assume a manager change has to happen before the transfer window to allow a new man to bring in his guys) but as a chairman he does some baffling stuff.

Took us down with Holloway at his worst (lots of panic buys). Hopefully for Sheff Wed he has learned from that

Yeah, baffling is definitely the right word.

But at his age & the reality he wants to make a few quid off us, then he does not have the time to let us go down, would be a 2 year step back.

When he first came here, we was like he's going to spend money, but I knew he wasn't, he seems to like a deep squad, but the quality is so poor, which is killing us. I think compared to previous chairmen we have had, there is something more optimistic about him than the others, because he is a football chairman in such a sense, when the others wasn't.

 :)up

Haha, then you can quote what I said about Murray when CMS honeymoon period of 6 games was over last season.

To be fair he isn't shit, he is shit in our system which wasn't obvious at that time. He has ridic pace and work ethic so fans will always love him but he just doesn't have that quality to bring other players into the game, hold the ball up etc. Poyet admitted it himself and sent CMS away to learn how we play (after one whole season!).

We need a Lambert, Holt, Murray type player and until that day comes we won't ever make the top 6.

Oh and look at what I sad about Harley. Amazing debut, then the most hated player we have had in the last 5 or 6 years since that debut!

Okay, well he said he hasn't got the 'quality'. He doesn't. Our fans are pretty shocked how Norwich want him.

He is still loved though a lot, due to his work ethic and attitude towards the game.

He won't. As I have previously stated he is seriously overrated.

Do you think he will go for anymore than £10m?

The only way I an see Ant getting out of this is if somehow he does not sell in January...

Yuh, furry muff Ant, just couldn't have CMS labelled 'shit'. He's quick, scores goals and tries his heart out. If he doesn't fit your system that's a different matter.

He's no Dwight Gayle though...

Its really weird, he has scored four quality goals this season but at times he looks like a league 1/2 player, but will always be a fans favourite wherever he goes. He can't have the ball played to his feet, it makes him look worse than he is. His best game was against Burnley when we had 9 men after 12 minutes, as we just hoofed it up the pitch every time.

Always last one off the pitch applauding the support, does a lap of honour every home game.

Gayle looks decent. Shame you have him on loan as his price tag will have gone up 10 fold now!

[/quote]


He won't. As I have previously stated he is seriously overrated.


[/quote]

Do you think he will go for anymore than £10m?

The only way I an see Ant getting out of this is if somehow he does not sell in January...
[/quote]

Depends what teams are prepared to pay. Palace say they won't accept less than £10M.

If Ince goes in Jan that would be a good benchmark!

If he played against Leeds each week he would be worth £30 he seems to score at fun vs us :(

Poyet seems a little whiney to me, quick to blame anything for not winning. Like he said today though they have only won a few from the last 15 game and still in the hunt for the playoffs so anything is possible.

Minute by minute of each game standings, to see if games were cut short at each of the 90 mins where each team would lie. Interestingly, Peterbrough would be 2nd in the league after 37 mins of play! This should be a good tool for in play betting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hQ7dlyAZqzI

Did a quick google but found nothing concrete, why is Harley so hated? I'm an Exeter fan so obviously I'm biased in liking him as a player.

Haha

northstandchat.com

probably most hated player we have had since been at the withdean.

he is slow, useless, doesn't care. looked a beast in league 1, bit odd really! luckily we only wasted £250K on him.

Harley needs to be loved, he will always need to be a big fish in a small pond not a small fish in a bigger pond, he'll drop down to someone like Leyton Orient and excel again.

Ant reAd that quote from you. Harley was terrible from his debut on. Yeah he scored a great free kick but was hopeless otherwise.

CMS is not a good footballer imo and I don't get where the idea he is fast comes from. He has a very weird run which makes it look like he is fast but ill take Buckley or LuaLua thanks. He does have without a doubt the best work rate on the pitch it's incredible and an inspiration to the other players as well as the fans.

Seen lots of football in my time.

Can't remember a player who works as hard as CMS.

Apparently already our player. From what I've seen, which isn't much, he looks like a 14yo version of CMS.

Wow CMS was SHOCKING today.

Chris wood celebrated infront of poyet lol.

Great penalty by Lopez.

Finally fixed that problem hopefully.

 :)up

Won't be suprised to see Milwall in the top 6 at the end of the season, good side Kenny has built up there.

Shane Long?

"Can't remember a player who works as hard as CMS."

Yep - similar to Tommy Mooney used to be.  Tons of heart and makes the most out of every last ingot of ability.

He won't. As I have previously stated he is seriously overrated.


[/quote]

Do you think he will go for anymore than £10m?

The only way I an see Ant getting out of this is if somehow he does not sell in January...
[/quote]

Depends what teams are prepared to pay. Palace say they won't accept less than £10M.

If Ince goes in Jan that would be a good benchmark!
[/quote]

£6M.

Not sure what different contract lengths Ince has compared to Zaha, but £6M would be about right for Zaha if they have same length contract.

Been quiet for a while now because I haven't quite been sure what to make of Palace recently.

We were on that amazing run and two big events happened. We had our first loss in ages after we catch Leeds on the up and we get caught out. And Zaha gets the call up for England with all the attention that brings with it.

The loss to Leeds is fair enough as that was deserved, but Zaha hasn't been the same since the England cap and there are rumours it is because he has his mind set on the prem. It is interesting as he really doesn't look like the same devastating player. He is getting man marked ferociously, with 2 and 3 on him at a time and so on and this doesn't help, but he just doesn't look like he is at the races mentally completely as he was pre England call up.

Don't get me wrong his performances since the call up have been good and any team would still be very happy with it, but it hasn't been blistering and there have been some deluded factions in the crowd having a go at him for holding onto the ball for too long or making occasional mistakes and it takes a lot for me not to turn around and have a go, it's crazy what some fans are thinking.

I think it will be interesting to see how he plays on Saturday in front of the cameras. If it is his blistering self that returns, even though Huddersfield's defense is pretty shocking, I think it will show that he is very keen to make a great account of himself to all the onlookers, which may add weight to up until now he hasn't been going 100%.

I think we will trounce Huddersfield and I think 3.8 which is currently going for Palace away to Cardiff is a great price. Definitely, considering we have our full strength squad back and mainly Jedinek in the centre of midfield that wins everything in the air and in tackles. The 1.8 which has now gone on the Palace home win I thought was a steal too, and am on it confidently.

If we get through the next two games with 6 points I think my belief is back for us to get automatically promoted. Considering, our last two games, we were quite unlucky not to get 6 points, there is definitely that edge lacking in our displays that we had before the Zaha England call up.

Would also like to mention that Yannick Bloassie on the other wing for us is outclassing Zaha at the moment, in his last 4 games he has been unplayable, and don't take that as me being overly excited, he has been top drawer.

We need to start dominating games again. With perhaps some signings in the January transfer window, I think we could get there, and maybe when that passes and we hold onto the services of Zaha, he will start improving to get us up knowing he's going no where for the time being. I think this league is ridiculously wide open at the top and it is just there for the taking for a team to take it by the balls and start dominating.

I don't think Palace will be around the top 4 as nicely as we are now next season at the same time of year, so I really do think we need to go gung ho for the top two spots now and I am praying for our domination to start again. Way too many draws recently for my liking. Lets start killing it again.

So ungrateful. We're second and I am complaining which is a joke. We have lost one in 19 games, but I would love it if we start converting those draws into wins.

Not close.

I should have said "forward" who works as hard.

Obviously some midfielders are ridiculously hard working

Anyone see the Delaney sending off? I don't think he was the last man and therefore should have only got the yellow. What a soft soft goal to concede for their equaliser too, so upsetting.

Ref said it was for dangerous play not a professional foul.

Looking at the pictures, it was a pretty awful challenge.

The Huddersfield red was a complete joke.

Their red wasnt even a foul the player got the ball.

Wow didn't know ours was for dangerous play, definitely not a red then in my book, it was more of a ridiculous body check than anything that deserved a yellow but nothing too malicious. Would need to see a real time replay if you get the chance to get the idea.

1 loss in 20 but our likeness for draws recently is upsetting when I have dreams of automatic promotion. All our last three draws have been promising despite not winning, so I am holding out on hope.

Going to Wales on boxing day to watch us against Cardiff, a win there and at Notts Forest on Sat would be all I want for xmas.

Funny league the Championship. Anyone can be anyone.

Peterboro beat Bolton, Barnsley beat Millwall and Wednesday beat Charlton.

Got a feeling one of the mid table teams will get dragged into the relegation dog fight.

Yesterday was the best Wednesday have played for a couple of months. After the embarassing display at Barnsley (even though we won) it was like a different team.

Might be something to do with Stuart Gray coming in as coach - looks a good move to me.

Huge win for us at Millwall, and the winning goal came from an ex-Owl too!

Trevor Kettle has to be the most incompetent, egocentric referee currently active in the game and he delivered yet again yesterday.  Millwall got a ridiculously soft penalty (which they missed) and then had a player sent off by the idiot for doing nothing much wrong in the eyes of everyone (including the non-impartial Barnsley player commentary team, and David Perkins who was the player fouled).

Hopefully, that's the last we'll see of his incompetence this season - we've suffered two games from him already, even though this one did work out in our favour.  Quite why the Football Authorities continue to believe he's fit to referee is beyond me!

Yes Kettle has a reputation for being a clown.

I like Hill and have a feeling you will stay up. A motivated Tudgay is a good player.

You were very unlucky against us.

Palace don't seem like anywhere near the machine they was under Freedman. They wasn't at all impressive yesterday either. No chance of top two with Holloway.

As for Wednesday sohded as if we was comfortable, missed the match this week as been uber busy, but looking at stats, looked like most comfortable we have been for a long time.

Haha delaneys was a shocking tackle.

One of the worst tackles you'll see all season in the champ.

beckford is so lazy!

Peterborough United can confirm Dwight Gayle will sign a four and a half year contract at London Road.

Peterborough United can today (Christmas Eve) confirm that the club have concluded its negotiations with Dagenham & Redbridge and will be signing striker Dwight Gayle on a permanent basis upon the opening of the January Transfer Window with the front man penning a four and a half year contract.

A transfer fee of £500,000 has been agreed, which could rise to £750,000 in add-ons with Gayle officially becoming a Peterborough United player on 2nd January. Gayle has scored five goals in six appearances since joining on-loan from the Daggers.

A splendid piece of business imo

Yeh maybe sour grapes on my part with the Delaney tackle but I thought the ref could have just booked him as it was early on and it wasn't malicious, just really awkward.

Aaron, yeh we have tailed off but I think we haven't been too far off the pace with one loss in 20 and in our last three we have drawn in unlucky circumstances. Remember you were watching Palace yesterday for nearly the whole game with 10 men. I think with 11 we would have won by 3 goals.

If Zaha goes in January I am sure I owe you £100 btw, would be shocked if he goes for over £19m, just think it will be a void bet though.

Great win for us today against Leeds.  I didn't see that one coming to be honest.

Against Palace next and it will be a different story.

Palace win for me.

How are you finding Billy Sharpe? My general thoughts always been he'll be a great championship player, but just a touch short of technical ability of outstanding pace/power to make it in the Prem. See much of Coppinger?

How are you finding SOD's erm, interesting press conferences, well, if you can hear them ^.^

Well, today went about as badly as it could have done.  Hello, League One.

Haha terrible appointment by forest, that will be billy sharp off.

danny graham being loaned out to a champ side now, any ideas who?

cardiff, back with malky possibly? poyet might be interested since we have signed harley, dobbie, orlandi from swansea!

chris wood off to leicester too, he put in the best individual away performance at the amex to date the other week, but looked like a donkey when on loan to us 20 months ago. maturing well!

"danny graham being loaned out to a champ side now, any ideas who?"

Wouldn't be surprised if it was Leeds in return for a hefty loan fee.

Brighton v Watford tomorrow.  Interesting game.  Would take a point I think despite Brighton's form being a bit indifferent.

Well Cassetti is suspended, and you have Vydra compared to Iwelumo now....

Would take a draw right now, but should be a good game of football for the sky cameras. Orlandi and Bruno are apparently back too thank god.

Is Buckley fit at the moment?  If so might not be a bad thing Casetti is suspended - he's great on the ball but slow these days.  Likely Anya will replace him, who isn't half as good on the ball but quick as lightning.  Will probably be a better match up for us against Buckley.

Forestieri is probably still out injured, but Vydra is in fine form at the moment.  Think this will be a good game. 2-2 I'll go for and then if we can follow up by beating out of form Charlton at home on New Year's Day then we'll be nicely positioned going into January.

Ex Hull & Preston boss Phil Brown reveals he has applied for the vacant Blackburn Rovers manager job.


The Venky's might just fall for that CV..:-)

haha - wouldn't surprise me :)

We've signed Chris Wood, who looks a good signing to me (on the basis of seeing him twice)

and Alex Baptiste from Blackpool, who I am less sure about

Interesting the chairman seems to be investing again as we are well the wrong side of Financial Fair Play for next season, even before these two signings and are far from certain to get to the top two to justify this...

I expect Wellens, Danns, Gallagher amongst others to leave in Jan to get the wage bill back down

Two great signings I think whom were badly needed

Wood is a hit or miss player.  We had him on loan for a while and he was worse than useless, but then seems to have done well at other clubs (and naturally scored against us a couple of weeks ago).

Stuff I've heard about Wood is he's a bit of a Billy Big Time.

Might clash with Pearson, or be inspired by him

Interesting to see which way it goes.

Huge game for Forest today (if it's on).  The knives have already been sharpened for Mcleish and if we don't win, it's gonna get a little uncomfortable at the ground today.

We are hugely exposed to pace out wide, can see Palace winning this.

Another inspection at noon, though its raining harder now than at 9.30. Feel sorry for travelling fans if it gets called off today. I'm on Palace DNB so Forest should win easily :)

Can games be changed to only 85 mins long please, k thx bye.

Onwards and upwards!!

Went up to Forest last night. I had a train at 12.15 from st Pancras and only found out the game was on at 11.50!

Felt that the draw was a fair result, but we need to get rid of Ramage at cb so that he doesn't gift teams anymore goals. Murray by himself deserved the win so should be getting support from his defence.

Reid for you guys was fantastic, why the fuck we gave him space to let off a shot I do not know, that didn't happen in the second half anyway!

Our other cb Gabiddon is too good for the championship and absolutely bossed it from crosses and blocks and everything he had to deal with. Complete steal how we got him.

I am really assured about that performance yesterday knowing with our full strength defence and Zaha getting his mental strength back after the transfer window, if he stays, we have a team that will get second in the league. How we haven't won in 5 games I do not know and think this frustration will boil over into say a 6 game 100% record and I think that starts at home to Wolves on Tuesday.

Murray was fantastic and Bolassie on our other wing is the complete winger imo, strong, has a cross, can get past players well and can find the easy pass too and has a powerful shot, pity Zaha is letting him down!

Not been to many Forest games this season, but been to games vs Cardiff and yesterday's match. You were definitely better than Cardiff, shows how open the race for promotion still is. Draw was definitely fair result though. Zaha seemed out of sorts though, is he on his way out?

Ornsssssssssssssssssssss

I don't think he is. If there are scouts on him atm he is going nowhere. We have him for five years contracted and would think we would hold on until the summer, but maybe his dip in form is a protest to the manager in some way to say let me go in Jan or there is plenty more shit where that came from. Just looks like he isn't trying and there is something amiss here.

If we have him firing on all cylinders and our full starting squad back we are imo, the best team in the league, he needs to Kop on.

Off note and one for Tightly, do you remember a player called Pat Gavin for Leicester in the early 90's? He didn't exactly light up your team but would be interesting if you knew anything about him. He is my 1st cousin once removed, but I don't know or care for the bloke really, so flame away if you want to!

Pat Gavin played for 2 or 3 times I believe, and I saw them

Tall centre forward, went on to play for Peterborough and Northampton? (this is from memory)

Wasn't good enough for us. Gangly an a bit out of his depth in the first division

Became a manager in non-league? Hanwell?

what's he doing now?

All correct and I am not too sure to be honest I will ask my old man eventually. Pretty abysmal scoring record for a striker but seemingly did ok at Wigan later on in his career.

Vaguely remember him being a Posh player; he was there at the same time as Ken Charlery and Tony Adcock and thus third- or fourth-string.

Watford put down their promotion credentials last night.  Fancy us to go up with Cardiff automatically now given that we started the season 6 weeks behind everyone else.   Commentators were going a bit over the top though!

Dungbeetle, our match at ures in the not too distant future looks to be a belter, definitely going to be getting tickets for it.

And Pat Gavin is now of the Eso Kral ilk and is an estate agent.

Never seen us get so battered at the Amex, Watford and Cardiff top 2 for me.

Indeed Ant.  Different players, but I'm struggling to remember the last time you didn't put us to the sword at Vicarage Road!  Should be a great game - both teams will go for it.

Tom Soares has just tweeted that Zaha is going to Arsenal this week, fwiw

Zaha was his boot-boy/apprentice a few years back

Yes, he's going in January, for sure.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11688/8372190/Crystal-Palace-winger-Wilfried-Zaha-insists-he-is-ready-for-Premier-League-move

I do not understand his attitude here though? Any other football would come out with a standard statement of "I am just concentrating on football", but instead he comes out with "I'm too good & want to move to Premier League ASAP".

Seen a lot of Palace fans say his form has gone down hill & a lot of others saying they will get about £10m.

Chris Wood will always be a hero for me for scoring the winner in the 10th minute of injury time for Birmingham in Bruges in the UEFA cup last season. From his half season with us I'd say he's a good option up front in the Championship but he's unlikely to be the guy who is going to lead you to the Premiership.

Wellens to Doncaster has been mentioned <3<3<3<3<3

He's been told by his agent to simmer down his performances to a stroll imo. He is literally playing at 50% and isn't bothering anymore. I can't believe we still start him tbh because he has been that woeful. Pathetic really. I would love it if he just rot in our reserves if he carries on the way he is for the next 5 years, rather than cash in.

How can you not play to your full potential just to secure a move in Jan. He is a prick atm, if you ask me, but I think he is being misled by his agent. If he gets his head screwed on after January and is still with us, and goes back to wanting to play for us then he is actually being a professional and my thoughts on him change.

But I can't stand players deliberately playing badly, actually can't think of many other incidences of it across the whole sport tbh, to the extent Zaha is showing.

Aaron, the £100 is obv yours if he leaves in January, my only out is a void bet.

If he actually played to the same standard he was playing at pre England call up I think we would be top of the league and he would be worth more like £15m+, but I think that he wouldn't have been allowed to leave.

So he does what he is doing now.

Or another argument is, is that he is trying his best but has all of a sudden forgotten how to play. 

He is totally mugging Palace off

You also have to consider if he carried on playing to his full potential automatic promotion would be likely and we would be in the prem by the summer and would never sell him. Which is terrible for him as pre season he penned a 5 year deal on what would be a pittance of a wage compared to any other player in the world of his standard.

So he basically has to leave us or sign a new contract with a higher wage, to.calm him down. Don't think the board would ever renegotiate the wage with him as he is contracted for so long, so we are going to be dealing with a complete cock of a player who is having a hissy fit and has no grace or respect whatsoever.

Those quotes in the article have irked me, I thought there was a slim chance that this was just genuine bad form he couldn't really control but I am now all but convinced hes not bothering now as that will only help in us disliking him and looking to get rid and then oh look he's Fucking amazing playing for whatever club we sell him to.

Next move by Holloway should be to play him for the Palace ladies team all through January and say there is five more years of that if you don't buck your ideas up.

Meh.  I don't think he has said too much wrong in that article?  If a Hornets player said that after a couple of year's good service I don't think I'd be too hacked off.  As long as Palace get £10 million for him then I think it's cocktail hour all round?  Very similar to when Ashley Young left us for Villa.  He made it clear he wanted to go by the end and went with most people's blessing.

I knew you were a bit delusional but that post takes the biscuit...

Most people have a vice where they can lose their shit and with Palace I guess that's it, much better than roulette five years ago!

Hope Zaha plays better and we keep him past January and we get his form back. Would be a shame for anything else to happen.

Think this year the standard of the top teams is nowhere near as good as years of old, but I wonder if anyone agrees?

From his performance on Saturday, spot on

Manchester United now after him, he seems in my view a lot better option for Man United than Arsenal or Chelsea.

Are Arsenal even interested?

Posh trying to bring in Nick Powell on loan for the rest of the season. Er, yes please.

your chairman dismiss it? means little i guess...

Palace have to be one of the best simple passes teams in the Championship, ball retention from front to back is normally incredible. We are however a little one dimensional, if you can call it that, we can only really score after we have given the ball out onto the wings and then played it back in.

No real direct threat from outside the box at all and in Glenn Murray we have a player who is awful outside of the penalty box. He can't have a shot outside the box because he's not very good at that, he often just scuffs it. But that is not the worst problem in the world if he is emphatic tapping in and heading.

I think if we get Zaha back we are the best team in the league. Intrigued actually to see who Holloway brings in to help. I think Jacob Butterfield is coming in on loan.

Cardiff are by far the best side in this league imo. Zaha would not change that

FYP

Not much doubt about the worst at the moment!

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2013/01/02/woeful-2012-for-qpr-points-to-unlucky-2013-and-relegation-020101/

Ha almost added the caveat that Leicester aren't far off, damn you Camel. Top 2 teams though.

Bellamy and Knockaert are the best players in the division, imo.

Leicester already have the best defence in the division (statistically) and I am hopeful that Wood and Nugent will develop a big partnership up top

Cardiff v Leicester next weekend will be a big test.

Just need to develop a bit more consistency and we'll really challenge for that second spot.

Wouldn't mind a match bet, Leicester points for the remainder of the season v Cardiff points.

lol, I've seen all the top sides at least 5 times this season and Hull and Boro have impressed me the most. Hull looked awesome on boxing day, maybe the best championship performance from a midfield that I've ever seen. Just signed Meyler for 1.5m which was important, they don't mind splashing the cash.

Along with Cardiff & Leicester, those 4 do seem certs for the top 6 already, which is unusual in the cship.

Cardiff are going to be found out soon imo, they have been winning some games barely and though that is the sign of champions, I have watched them this season and just thought they were really exploitable at the back. They do well in taking their chances though so fair play.

Leicester I do worry about much more. They have had one or two lulls this season but them in full flow, especially with Knockheart who I agree is the best player in this league, are very impressive. Haven't seen enough of Boro to really judge and every time I see Hull I am underwhelmed, but much like Boro I don't know enough about them.

Palace in full flow, and i think that now we have our first win in five the results will start coming back with great assurance, is the best team in the league, imo. We went to Leicester at their ground at the height of their powers and won, we embarrassed Cardiff too when they came to our ground and aside from our first home game that we had Martin at centre back, we haven't lost at home this season and have been thoroughly dominant most games.

We have had this lull though which had been worrying but i feel fine about it now, we just needed that win and were very unlucky on most occasions when we didn't get it. I think we are now going to close the gap on Cardiff and I hope them and everyone else around there start dropping points to make it easier. Would also too like to mention that our run in until the end of the season is without all of the top teams away from home and I think that will factor in too in our potential dominance of all leftover games to come.

We have the most prolific poacher in the Championship, have one of the best wingers in Bolasie, and if there is a better holding midfielder in the league than Mile Jedinek I would be mightily surprised. Arguments too that Speroni is the best, or at least in the top 4 goalkeepers in the league. We have Gabiddon and Delaney at CB who have both been awesome.

I am definitely confident of our automatic promotion chances. Will be interesting too to see what Holloway will do in the window and has anyone any viewpoint on Jacob Butterfield as he has been linked with us?

Tell you what Ant, you like a beet, how about this.

You have Palace, I'll have any team out of Cardiff, Leicester, Hull, Brighton or Boro. You can pick my team.

Who gets more points from now until the end of the season.

We can have a straight up bet, or a spread bet (If Palace get 5 more points than Hull, you win 5x the stake etc etc).

How about it?

What are the odds for each team you are putting forward or are they all at evens I can pick anyone from that list for you to have to try and beat Palace in the placings? Not interested in a spread bet, only the outright.

Max bet?

Wanna know the gist of what you are offering, I am basically in as soon as you respond back with that.

An even bet, you get the advantage of choosing which team you are opposing from that list.

It's a bet on points gained from today onwards, all points gained already are not included

I'll add Watford to the list if you like, but points deductions obviously don't count.

"Wouldn't mind a match bet, Leicester points for the remainder of the season v Cardiff points."

I'll take Cardiff at evens on this one if you want Leicester Camel.  Think it's pretty much a coinflip so looks a fun bet although I'm aware the spread firms think Leicester will get one point more.  Happy to do relatively low stakes as you don't know me.  £150 or something and settle 20th May or whenever season ends.  PM me if you fancy a wager and I'll let you know who I am on Hendon.  Alternatively £15 a point spread match bet.

 "if there is a better holding midfielder in the league than Mile Jedinek I would be mightily surprised"

Chalobah will play a decent chunk of Chelsea's games next year I think.

Just to point out if you guys are doing Watford in a match bet we have a game in hand on everyone else which messes the match bet up on the proposed terms.

if there is a better holding midfielder in the league than Mile Jedinek I would be mightily surprised.
[/quote]

You probably can name about 3 of the other teams holding midfielders, so how do you come to this conclusion?

Hull's defensive midfield duo were very good when I saw them beat us as well I must say.

Jedinek > Chalobah Ant? Cereal?

For Jedinek, it is a case of in every game I have seen this season he has been the best centre midfielder on the pitch by some way. He is a colossus. I think I have seen over half the games of our campaign too. I did say I would be surprised if I saw better, not that he is the out and out supreme player, but I have no idea what has got into him he was awful last season.

Camel, cheers for pointing out its from this point forward as I had missed that.

I want us against Brighton please? How does £150 sound?

I am fine too obv with the game in hand Brighton have and if on the same points from now on by the end of the season it will go on goal difference, still tied, on how many scored?

Booked for £150.

If tied settle on GD, then GS from this point on.

Standings today (to remind ourselves where the bet begins from)

Palace Played 26  Points 47 For 50 Against 34 +16
Brighton Played 25 Points 37 For 35 Against 26 +9

Good luck!

nice one you too.

Sent you a  PM Camel.

Dung

I'm told Watford are bringing in 23 year old Andrea Mazzarani shortly.  Played 20 games in Serie A last year, can play on the wings or through the middle. Can cover wing back positions as well.

Anybody familiar with him?

Dean Saunders has moved from a non league club to Wolves inside 18 months with one complete season in which he got the team he managed relegated. (Admittedly the experiment with loan players last season was a shambles)

Must be nice.

Our best kept secret of the Best holding midfielder in the champ is out :(

http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/06/gus-poyet-says-brighton-star-liam-bridcutt-could-play-for-real-madrid-after-newcastle-display-3340748/?

Seeing what joe Allen went for....£5m should do it.

I would look at the flip side of that and say he did very well with Wrexham, sorted helluva lot of problems behind the scenes and was always positive and handled the press well.  He's also done very well to get Donny to joint top too. 

But I am surprised he moved so quickly.

Being a palace fan, Ants comments sometimes embarrass on here so I tend not to post about them too much.
Zaha-had a dip in form but all players form fluctuates throughout the season. Ants comments about dropping him just ridiculous.
Jedinak- solid midfielder and played very well this season. Not in top 5 best midfielders in the championship though.

Realistically we have over achieved this season and the aim must still be the play-offs. Hull have impressed me the most, although we obviously caught Leicester on a bad day. Cardiff certainly not guaranteed to go up, they have picked up a lot of fortunate points lately.

Hope zaha stays until the summer and we sign a quality right back and centre mid and a decent back up to Murray.

Do you think you will miss Dikgacoi?

Yes, purely because we don't have a like for like replacement. I think IH will be looking to bring in a similar type of player on loan for a month until he returns.

Looks like Watford just bid £2million for Brady (Man Utd/on loan at Hull) but Hull have matched it and he is set to go there.  Not sure we need anyone in the LWB position to be honest.  Pudil/Neuton seem fine enough there.

He's always looked very impressive when I've seen him play.  Very good Championship player.

Was somewhat tongue in cheek. I blew off rumours of him going to Wolves as I simply thought they'd want a better record. It is also a big risk for him because if he takes another side down it could easily end his career. Many Doncaster fans are gutted, he always criticized our fans for a lack of loyalty which looks rather weak now.

We're not scraping draws and wins, we have lost two in 20 odd in the league and you think we're over achieving? With how some of the games have panned out we have been underachieving tbh.

Think Wilbrahim is a little untested in the back up role to Murray and would be a good replacement, Easter is terrible and shouldn't play again. With rb, Ward is injured and back soon and is a good player in his own right, impressing when fit. We also have Darcy Blake out, who is cover for that role.

In midfield we are missing a big fucker to replace Dikagcoi for the month but think with the amount of centre midfielders we have on our books we should be fine to see one of them step up.

I think we need a winger most of all as back up to Bolassie/Zaha, one of them gets injured or tired and we then have half the side of the field with no threat at all. Also relatively important to have competition for places where there is everywhere on the pitch aside from on the wing and up front. Up front though, I just can't see who we could bring in of note who will be prepared to play on average only 10 mins a game when Murray is fit. Alan Lee maybe? Ha.

I most probably owe you £100 Aaron and if he is sold its the most mug punter thing I have done and that is saying something! Seems likely now.

We have brought in Alex Nimely on loan, anyone got any views on him? Seems like he is of the Bolassie/Zaha ilk?

Did you see 'Footballers football show' with Holloway Ant?

I saw quotes from it, sounds like a done deal with Zaha being loaned back to us, doesn't it?

There was no mention of that, but I did miss the 1st 10 minutes.

Stuck up for him as you would expect and spoke very well.

He isn't bad on Football Manager 2013 if that counts for anything  :P

He's is definitely upset Zaha couldn't show enough steel to maintain focus and maintain form through the added attention the England call up brought. You know I think it is a partial hissy fit on Zaha's front and I think that will be proved right as soon as he leaves us and is on blistering form elsewhere.

Or maybe when he has signed for a prem club and can go back to his normal self for us, when on loan for the rest of the season.

I think its more likely, and he said so, that so many agents and people are ringing him all the time, 'we can get you this deal', 'fancy playing for these, great deal, x amount a week', 'I'll make you a star, come on board with me' etc

That will have far more effect on him than an Eng call up 2 months ago.

I sort of meant exactly that as a result of the Eng call up, it wasn't just the 10 mins in and of itself he played that effected him, for sure. I think if you saw personally what he was doing on the wing before his head got turned and what he is doing now, they are just simply not the same player, never mind a player not in form, or experiencing a dip.

Leonardo Ulloa deal moving closer, looks like could be signing by mid next week. Exactly what we need, a powerhouse upfront.

Cya later CMS.

And of the best players to have ever played in the championship is back in the squad for first time since August tomorrow :)

Probably get injured during the warm-up though lol.

Holloway is an absolute legend, has you hooked on every word.

Pretty much what he said, that Zaha will be going to one of the big clubs and hopefully getting loaned back for the rest of the season.

Don't see him playing much tbh, pretty sure his time at the Amex is done

Another immense away win for the Hornets.  The 3-5-2 works so well on the counter.  Just need to figure out a plan B for when we are struggling to break down teams at home.  Vydra is incredible.  Quick possibly the best striker I've ever seen at Vicarage Road.

Too young to remember George Reilly obv.

Huge day for Leicester

Cardiff drew, Hull, Palace, Middlesboro lose

2 points off 2nd with a much better goal diff and Chris Wood looking a hugely significant signing. We have a lot of flair creative players, now with a second goalscorer up with Nugent we are firing the chances in, which we weren't converting consistently two months ago

Next, Middlesborough at home, a big one


Huge day for Barnsley and Sheff Wed at the other end, too

Wednesday were great value for the win at Hull just now, were robbed of a second goal at 1-0 and a Hull sending off by eccentric refereeing and produced a terrific away performance you wouldn't have thought they had in them

Massive win and puts US big up there.

Wiiiiii

You're right about Wednesday - and we play Wolves on Saturday.

It just wouldn't be the Wednesday way to make life easy and win on Saturday.

Yeh was well impressed with us tonight. Made a good team look average.

Play like that rest of the wade and e should be safe (last goal almost like Torres in ECL semi final)

It really is a funny old league isn't it.  With Forest winning and teams around us not doing much, it was also a good day for us, however, I wouldn't be too concerned about us, we are not good enough to threaten the top 3.

6th at the very best, but unlikely this season.

Sorry Tighty, I'm praying Leicester don't go up for obvious reasons.

The wind has been taken out of our sails at the moment and we are not on the blistering form we were on when Zaha was firing on all cylinders. I remember watching him against Peterborough away and thinking he is going to be a superstar. Now he is playing like he is going through the motions and is pretty terrible.

Need him gone for as much money as possible, or we need him to be told he is not leaving until possibly the summer, so he has to get his head back down to assure the move. I think his lackadaisical, performances recently have been because he probably knows more than us about how likely he is to be going to a top team and he has subsequently put his foot off the gas with us to nearly a complete stop. He is distracting the team and taking the focus away from what we should be doing on the pitch. I think too, other players are getting frustrated with Zaha and are as bemused with how he is playing as I am.

Cannot be stressed enough too that our poor recent form could be down to Holloway being a little duped into thinking Ramage is the answer to our centre back problems when we have Darcy Blake and Danny Gabbiddon on the bench, who have both been proven to be better when played.

We have Joel Ward out injured for another 3 weeks and he is our best and only real right back. We have a left back filling in at the moment in Johnny Parr and he is awful on the other side, complete ledge on the left though where he should be starting! Then we have Dean Moxey at left back who is a defensive calamity, pure and simple.

Actually going through our defence is depressing me, plus I think Darcy Blake is injured too. So we have three of the four starting defenders, who I deem to be lower Championship standard, and if we continue to play them we will be no where near the top six. But get Joel Ward back in the team and that puts Parr back out on the left, drop Ramage for Gabiddon/Blake and maintain Delaney and I think we have there are top defence in this league.

Our central midfield trio has been upset because Dikagcoi has left for the ACN and Garvan is out injured, not sure for how long, and tbh, I didn't even know he was injured and didn't play yesterday. FFS we are down to the bare bones here.

We have Jedinek in with Moritz and O' keefe then at the moment. Moritz is a slow mofo who is currently unfit but takes a superb free kick, can delay play, annoyingly, by holding the ball up for too long, while we like to pop the ball around on the floor very quickly nowadays. He however has a fierce shot and a good eye for a through ball, but really isn't as good as Garvan in the same playmaker role. O' Keefe is unproven at this level and has looked a little out of sorts when I have seen him and doesn't look likely to fill Dikagcoi's boots at all.

We have Zaha on the left wing and Bolassie on the right. We need to bench Zaha on current form and bring in Williams who may well be a great player for us if he develops a bit more strength, has a great pass and reminds me a little of the Derby wonderkid with his ability for a piercing through ball and great feet. Bolassie is pretty amazing. Great workrate, skill and cross and has shown what an indispensable player he is to us.

Murray up front cannot normally create anything by himself, directly, it seems. If you plant the ball with him outside the box, he is mostly scared stiff by the thought of shooting, and will always look to play it wide. The best poacher I have ever seen though, and holds the ball up well with great flick ons, so for our system he fits in great.

Right, on assessment we are a little screwed for the rest of this month, unless Dikagcoi comes back unexpectedly from ACN, Garvan and Ward do miraculous recoveries, and Ramage gets dropped for the forseeable future. We do have a completely makeshift team that is in a little bit of disarray with the Zaha situation.

This needs to be sorted ASAP, as a lot of teams around us are starting to look the business, Leicester and Watford in particular, but I think our home form could be what saves us.

Dropping Zaha is a little out there of a thought, but with the intentions he has to leave and with us accommodating offers, we should be planning now for a future without him. And if we do let him go but he is loaned back to us for the rest of the season, I am nigh on certain we get the real Zaha back and we could get promoted. As he would be a happy man, he would be playing football just like he did pre England call up and he would effectively be playing for his place in the starting line up of the Man United team, or whatever club he goes to.

So round up is you won't be seeing me placing recommendations for us to win in any games on the Tips for Tikay thread for a change, unless something drastic happens quickly. For the first time in the season I am worried. I hope that our amazing home form is what keeps our chances of automatic promotion alive. I also do have faith that I could be completely wrong with all the negative assertions of all the players I talked about above and would absolutely love them all to gel and start winning games.

Big match next week against Bolton, with the return of Dougie. Fan opinion of what he should be regarded as now, is split, quite dramatically. I still think he is a Palace hero and an ill judged move to leave for Bolton doesn't change my view of him, but so many fans think he is scum now.

Huge month for Palace, if we get through this with our heads held high, within touching distance of the top two and then you never know. Still got that £200 at 11/1 for us to be promoted to think about too. That coming in would be nice.

You ever considered that he just isn't all that?

Told him that earlier on in the thread. Had about three good games and is suddenly worth £20M.

lol.

Think Chompy and Tighty on here will probably come to my defense on that one. 20m might have been steep, but he was such a class player, with his biggest fault being on occasion his finishing and final ball,but he wiuld often create something ot of nothing.

I think you guys have to think back to him last season at the Amex, but he had improved much more over the summer, and was bloody scintillating.

Yuh, definitely a bit special on what he did at London Road.

Also he was our most consistently awesome player up until the England call up. If your are extremely bored, look back on most of our games reports this season and what the opposing manager has had to say after, or the match report even! Zaha is praised gushingly, all the time.

In particular if you are looking for a standout game ask a Wolves season ticket holder what they think of Zaha when we went to the Molineux.

I don't think I have ever seen a Championship player leave for anyone for anywhere near, so Zaha really did need to be a superstar as you said, but he isn't.

A good weekend for us. But like others have mentioned it is the Wednesday way to play that well away to one of the top teams, then play a very average one and go and lose comfortably. After I saw the line up for the Hull game I thought we was in for a hammering. But we played awesome and very good value for win, but I don't think we made them look 'average', I think they was absolute poor, think it's fair to say we probably caught them on a very off day.

I said Bristol City was doomed weeks and weeks ago, no change there & no manager will fix that without investment this month.

Barnsley & P'boro a very mixed bag, Barnsley can go and play top teams and deserve a result (Millwall & Leeds), then go and get outplayed by very average teams at home. P'boro a lot better team than 5 or 6 weeks ago.

I think we will stay up & I would not be surprised if Birmingham got caught up in this when they have Lee Clark in charge.

Leicester good value for promotion also, best team at Hillsborough this season, imo.

St@nley J@mes going a very generous looking 10/11 about your boys on Friday night. Most firms 8/11, with B0yles as short as 4/6. Betfair 1.79. I've filled my little boots anyway!

Just sigh at all of that.  Typical results orientated reply.  We played worse earlier in the season and won games!  So frustrated when reading things like that!

Please be more specific with reasons against whatever points.

"I think we will stay up & I would not be surprised if Birmingham got caught up in this when they have Lee Clark in charge."

Absolutely.  I also think Huddersfield may get sucked in - they have been out of form for a couple of months now.

OMG this is ridiculous. We have our chairmen (or maybe just one of them) posting under their username CPFC2010, responding to another poster who has really got to them and their responses are a little crude and a bit unprofessional to say the least. The thought of the chairmen on the forums directly is probably a concept that doesn't get used much anywhere?

They have loved it, posting over 5000 times, but perhaps the tone of their last posts aren't the best. I haven't even got through reading it all yet!

http://www.cpfc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=229390&page=261

Post 5219 is the first probably out of line comments from the chairman to a poster on there, and then it just escalates with further posts, I think the next one is two pages on. Read two replies so far, dunno if there are more, but one of the lines by one of our charimen is:

"Really what is your problem? come on lets have it, on here or you can man up and come and see me, you can even bring Mummy if you're worried about coming."

Probs best to link you to the Chairmen's username so you can just scroll through their posts to miss the riff raff, from the third one down---> http://www.cpfc.org/forums/search.php?searchid=851335

"Call me a liar on here once more , insinuate you know something that I know you don't or just isn't true and you better start saving your pocket money for a lawyer."

Would be embarrassed to support CPFC.

Btw saw will hughes at the weekend v us, sadly went off injured after 35 mins, but is ridic. not seen someone play like that at that age ever before live. will be a star, hope he plays a couple of full seasons before rotting away!

Zaha stuff getting a bit ridic at the moment, definitely fed up of hearing about it now!!!!

Same here. At least report something that is actually happening rather than hype! Doesn't help that so far it has been a relatively inactive window, coinciding with more dramatic coverage. Seems like sky sports news are pushing it hard this early!

Several sources reporting that Colombian striker Brayan Parea is on his way to Watford.

2 points on this

1) Not sure we need another striker
2) We would bizarrely then have the players known as "the next Messi" and "the next Falcao" on the books.

To be fair I imagine there are a few other "next Messis" out there alongside Forestieri (who incidentally is no longer on loan and has signed a 5 year contract with Watford.

New striker for £2m
Bid rejected for £2m for Dutch u21 cb

Blooms going for it!

Just bought a Palace subscription to their online material. Just watched a post match interview with Holloway after Burnley. Straight off the bat I am in stitches because I don't expect this.

"Do you think that was a fair result"

"Are you drunk, did you watch the game?"

Up the Palace, we need to hammer these lot, and have gone for a ridiculously attacking set up.

A gutting 0-0. We played well by the sounds of it with quite a few chances but we are missing that finishing edge. Really doesn't help that Dikagcoi and Garvan are missing and we really don't have another goalscorer aside form Murray.

I might have to write off the month of January until Dikagcoi comes back and hopefully our loan signings will have time to settle in. Looking for a bit of luck now to try and get a run going. 2 wins in 13 games though, tells it's own story.  A lot of bad luck though which doesn't help but must be the same with every team, so not going to go on about that! Bolton had one or two chances too in this game that if they had put in, we may have been close out of it.

I wonder how important in the Brighton bet I have with Camel the Zigic equalisier will be! I was about to write up that he is reeling away in this bet, he is still 3 points ahead with a game in hand. 5 points ahead would have been annoying.

How did the rest of you lot get on?

Just got back from the Wednesday/Wolves game.

Wednesday were the better team but toothless upfront, Wolves were the worst team I've seen this year.

They were awful. Saunders has got alot to do if he's going to turn them around.

Wouldn't be a suprise to see one of Wolves/Huddersfield/Birmingham get dragged into the relegation dog fight.

Hull pretty ordinary at Poshies today. They defend well but were at least matched by a struggling side missing two of its best players and carrying a passenger up front.

Go Hornets!

Heard you dominated the first half and should have taken at least one goal.

I just don't think Birmingham are gonna be in trouble by the end of the season. They have enough quality in their squad and it is always surprising to see them faltering. Huddersfield though have been poor so that wouldn't be surprising. With Wolves much the same as Birmingham that they really should be doing better, and I think where they have gone wrong is by assigning Saunders to the role who I am not confident has enough quality yet as manager to be a success there.

I want him to as he comes across as a nice guy but I think there would be a manager there somewhere more befitting to a club who could be capable of getting promoted next season.

I think the three currently in the relegation zone will go down and if anyone is going to show something to get out of it I would assume its Peterborough in place of probably Huddersfield.

birmingham have lee clark though

I thought that all along with Hull, but to be where they are they have to be doing something right. Too with Cardiff, not really impressed with them but they grind out results so fair play!

If I had to predict the final standings of the top six I would pick Leicester first, Cardiff second, Watford 3rd, Palace 4th, Hull 5th, Boro 6th.

Think Cardiff, despite being 1-2 up against Blackpool away, as i write this, are going to wane at some stage of the season.

Lol, could be the main reason they are failing atm!

re hull

have spoken to five or six people who have seen most of there games this season  and they say they have actually played well maybe four times!

I have seen five and they have played well once and just solid but rank average the other four.

I think they have quite a lot of grit and as chompy said they are generally solid at the back getting stockdale back is a massive plus and if the lad from german football starts scoring (2 in 2  now) they should end up in the play offs.

They have a decent knack of not being completely awful that often which is enough to at least compete in most games.

Hull are solid throughout (Chester and Hobbs, especially and also the holding midfielders), and Koren provides that little spark

Not generally got that little bit extra needed to get them top two in my opinion, and vulnerable in the play offs to a more talented side turning it on

I think Faye, their centre back, wouldn't have too much trouble walking straight into any teams defence in this league.

Talking of centre backs, I watched Leicester last night and though Morgan was a complete beast. I look at Peter Ramage in comparison and shake my head. I can't wait for Danny Gabiddon to be fit again!

Wes Morgan and Hudson at Cardiff are fantastic CBs at this level. Morgan in particular is a real leader

Agree with Hudson, but he has to be the slowest footballer in the world, anyone that is outpaced by Glenn Murray should be embarrassed.

there are plenty of good strong centre backs in the championship

morgan and hudson have both improved a lot, faye at hull is probably still good enough to at least be in contention for a premiership side.

You can have Leicester in a matchbet vs Cardiff with me if you like?

I am more sure Cardiff are going to falter than Leicester are to be keeping up their current form, so I am not confident with this. As with the Brighton Palace bet I have with Camel. Palace aren't in the best shape at the moment but I would hope after January we will kick on and hopefully close the gap, which i think will get bigger, on Brighton.

If Butterfield can replace Garvan well, then I am confident of winning the bet. If we don't find a replacement for him I fear for our form. Williams can hopefully slot in as well maybe.

That Zigic goal must have hurt, that guy fucked us too when we went there recently.

Is that a yes or a no? Anything up to 4 bag

Twas a no. Thanks.

Disappointed to come away from Derby with only a point yesterday.  I felt we did enough to win, but it makes a change to actually put in a display at their place.

Despite all of our off the field circus antics, I may change my tune and say we will just sneak 6th spot.

All depends on the next match v Watford.  Quite significant now for us.

If we don't manage to sign Billy Sharp up long term, it will be a huge mistake.

Interesting 10 days coming up to Watford.  Due to the FA Cup and our game in hand we play 2 games in a row when none of the other top 6 play any games, so it feels like a good opportunity to stick a marker down.

Forest away and then Bristol City away.  Win both and we are second.

"Is that a yes or a no? Anything up to 4 bag"

Think Camel is in the market for this Flushy.  I've got Cardiff against his Leicester to small stakes so imagine he'll do some more size.

Milldly interesting graph

https://twitter.com/experimental361/status/293270113468174337/photo/1

Birmingham City first-team players can leave St Andrew's

Birmingham City have confirmed to BBC WM that they are open to offers for any of their first-team players as they continue to battle financial problems.

Blues, lying 20th in the Championship, are looking to offload a number of players to reduce their wage bill.

However, they denied reports that they are actively looking to sell top scorer Marlon King on a free transfer.

The 32-year-old striker has 18 months remaining on his contract and is one of the higher earners at St Andrew's.

But the club have admitted that they are seeking fresh investment after failing to publish their financial figures for the last two years.

A consortium fronted by former QPR chairman Gianni Paladini is believed to be interested in taking over the club.

However, in the short-term, it appears that Birmingham need to sell some of their players in order to stabilise their finances.

One of those players to leave could be England goalkeeper Jack Butland, with Birmingham's management admitting that they had no control over his future.

Despite their financial struggles, last week manager Lee Clark said that they had rejected a £300,000 offer from Nottingham Forest for midfielder Chris Burke.

They're really in trouble aren't they?  Can easily see them going down.  Well done on Selby by the way Tighty.

Zigic on £60K a week.

Good luck getting rid of him!

new bid gone in for Dutch U21 CB.

2.4M was the last bid.......

As Rick said Wednesday played Wolves & they was the worst side we have played this season & he hits the nail on head with unable to convert chances. If it wasn't for Wolves having 33 points already and my own personal feeling that you will need just less than 50 points to stay up, it will mean Wolves will just have enough to stay up.

Worried about Birmingham, Lee Clark is just not a good manager.

I think Leicester will be the 2nd place finisher this season, best team I've seen at Hillsborough & Hull starting to disappoint against two of the worst teams in the league in the shape of Wednesday & P'boro, picking up one point.

I think Palace are in for a surprise & will finish out of the play-offs at this rate.

It's going to be tight for the play off spots.  There's always a surprise package that comes from nowhere later on in the season.

No idea who that might be though this year.

I do fancy Leeds to string something together.  Also Burnley have crept up on the rail and there is always Brighton of course.  Millwall seem to have faded, and I fear for Palace now.  Have to say I don't fancy Forest either, but I'm sure that will mean they beat us now at the weekend!

I must have posted my comment on after reading page 30 not 31, surely must be a bet for Birmingham to go down as players will likely to be sold for a lot less?

6/1 for relegation, worth fifty?

Got my online banking ready for you Aaron :(

Sounded like an awful performance, but take the point.

HAVE to beat sheff wed + hull now to have any chance of top 6.

Long way to go, but the first signs of a gap developing between the top 6 and the rest now.

Everyone is faltering for points atm aside from Watford, Leicester and Cardiff, at the top. Means Palace are still in with a shout despite some horrid form.

Have had two of you know state you think Palace are probably going to drop out of reckoning but I put it to the thread that as soon as all this hassle with the transfer window is put to rest, the results will come back with a nice regularity. Also, every single draw we have had in our last 10 games aside from at Hull, we were the better team so we aren't getting the rub of the green. Despite this, still fourth!

Dikagcoi back soon, we have Butterfield in to replace Garvan as the playmaker, but we still have a right back problem and Ramage getting games which is never good. We do have all our other better centre backs out injured though.

Fully fit our defence is solid, as it is we are pretty pathetic in comparison and annoyingly I think its a couple more weeks until some players come back fit. We have good cover for Zaha if he goes, in Williams and I hear we are bringing in another striker to hopefully ease the load on Murray. Announced by the end of the weekend/early next week, apparently.

Garvan/Ward injuries are the biggest blows to our starting line up. Upsetting.

Will report back properly after Ward comes back in a couple of weeks, what I think our chances are.

lol, has it been sorted?

I just read an article on Zaha and Manchester United saying deal is almost certain!

I'll let you buy out early if you want :)

yeah rumours are £7.5M cash upfront + £5M of add ons, with Powell going there on loan for the rest of this season.

Good deal considering Ince whose a better player is going to cost around £6M!

I am not sure of this "Ince is a better player" - people have been saying this for a long time & still he is at Blackpool.

Palace nowhere near as good as they was earlier and dropping like a stone, fancy them to drop out after Zaha leaves.

No guarantee Powell will be ready to make a significant impact at Championship level yet either.

Stats don't lie.

Last season

Ince: 6 assists, 6 goals (33 games)
Zahahahaa: 4 assists, 6 goals (41 games)

This season

Ince: 10 assists, 13 goals
Zahahahaa: 4 assists, 5 goals

Ince only like 10 months older too. Would love to see 'chances created' like they show on sky sports for the prem. Ince probably well over double that, just like his assists and goals stats.

Zaha also been booked 7 times in 26 games (probably 6 of them for diving).

Isn't ince an out and out striker though?!

No.  Ince plays wide right of a 3 usually, they stick a log up top like Taylor-Fletch, who is a reasonbale clever if immobile CF, then have the wide pair pushing with licence to drift infield.

Erm no.

Zaha played upfront for Palace last season some of the time, which makes the facts even more in Thomas's favour.

Still can't understand how Zaha is worth double.

Apparently Ince has had the most shots in the league out of anyone, which I suprised about given that he doesn't play right up top.

I think I'd rather have Ince as well in my team at the moment.  Maybe Zaha has more potential to improve significantly in the scouts' eyes?

Eagles - 115 shots
Ince - 82 shots
Zaha - 47 shots

Eagles!?

Yep, he has five against us all from 30 yards out!

http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/DivisionalShooting/0,,10794~20127,00.html

(http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9360/44138635.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/5/44138635.jpg/)

Annualised form over last 8 games onto current points total.

Watford second  :)up

Did it take long to find the sort option on that to set it to 'apparently random'?

The bet we had was Zaha being sold in January and a void bet if he wasn't. There is a grey area in that say if it becomes a pre arranged deal whereby the deal actually goes down in the summer, and they have only agreed to it in principal in January, with Zaha remaining at Palace, he would technically be a Palace player with no sale. Meaning if Zaha was to get injured and had to retire in February while playing for us, Man United would actually just pull out of the deal with no money lost, as any commitment from them was only in the summer. If this is the case I think it is a void bet. But this is really up for debate, I am not trying to pussy out here, I want to discuss it, I always pay up on bets with no fuss when i lose, but this is a terms issue. I had no idea any of this malarkey would go down.

However, if money exchanges hands from the January sale and Zaha becomes a Man United player but is only loaned back to us that is a different story and you win the bet.

His finishing and final ball still leave something to be desired tbh. He creates a lot of chances and of them they are golden opportunities, mostly, where if you see the shooting stats of Eagles i doubt too many of those 115 shots were 1 on 1's or a clear goal scoring opportunity.

He generally is a little pants with finishing and his final ball when passing, he is alright though at the moment, and it is clear with how much he is improving, he will both be a clinical finisher and clinical with his deliveries, eventually.

What he has, and why he is valued so much higher than Ince is on the qualities that rarely come in a player and that is the sheer ease of which he can get past a player one on one and make them look silly, creating space and linking someone else in to create something with (maybe a reason for the low assists tally), but this time they have so much more space. You saw him at the Amex but have blamed your defender in not being very good. You remember the ease of which he danced through a lot of your back line to score?

He can dance as well as any winger I have seen and I see a lot of the early Christiano Ronaldo in Zaha. They have what i believe to be similar abilities in getting past players. What Man U did for Ronaldo I think they could do for Zaha in bringing him from a rough diamond into one of the best players in the world. I just remember Ronaldo in the fa cup final against Millwall when he had only just started at Man U and he was taking the piss out of that Championship backline with ease. That is what Zaha is doing, most weekends now.

Ferguson will kick him on to become a great imo.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/23/wilfried-zaha-manchester-united

Great deal for Palarse that.

Lol @ comparison to Ronaldo.

xx

yup. It is sort of £13m though, apparently the appearances add on isn't too hard to breach and is sort of in case he gets injured, the extra £2m is for England call ups and trophies won, so is much more speculative.

His performances waned completely ever since the England call up and I don't think the board were as confident of how good he is because of it. So they were definitely not as confident holding out for £20m, and effectively were sold a dummy (as was I) with how good he was pre England to how he was post. I think the only reason he hasn't been playing so well was he was mentally affected by not having the future he wanted, secure (head turned in the England camp, show off bastards! :)). Now he has that, and I really hope he gives it his all in Palace colours before he heads off in the summer.

I want Zaha of pre England call up playing for us again and if so then we are a huge threat and will be snapping at the heels of whoever is second.

Some numbers to digest about Palace:

Pre England Call up ---- 13 games  won 10 drew 3 Lost 0

Post England call up ---- 12 games won 3 drawn 7 lost two

If he played at the same standard he showed before the call up in the lead up to this transfer he would have gone for £17m+, as we would probably be second in the league and the Chairmen would probably be gambling for the prem with his services intact and wait on the summer.

At the moment, the board have seen his crazy dip in form, are a little scared he may not rise to the same heights and want to lock in a guaranteed profit AND/OR Zaha wants to go and no-one wants a dead weight in the side, because he's playing not fully there in the head.

2 games into his spell as a Man U player but loaned back to us are going to be massive to see if we have Zaha of old playing for us. A happy Zaha. If so, God help the rest of you having to listen to me on here.

I was happy to cash the bet out yesterday as I had read somewhere that they may do the deal in January, but officially be at United in August, etc. But now it's clearly not the case & is having his medical at Man Utd as we speak.

This is probably the easiest £100 I have made!

I'll ship details over now for you :D :D

A CLUB STATEMENT: LUCIANO BECCHIO
 24 Jan 2013
The club has issued the following statement...
Luciano Becchio scores

Luciano Becchio, who has been the subject of two separate bids from foreign clubs during the January transfer window, has handed in a transfer request to the club, as financially he believes his best interests are served by a move away from Leeds United.

Both bids have been rejected and the player will only be allowed to leave in the event that an acceptable offer is received.

The club have sought to agree the terms of a new contract with the player, who is already the highest earner, but the requested terms were beyond a level that we could support, particularly in view of the regulations relating to Financial Fair Play that will be effective in coming seasons.

It is disappointing that this situation has occurred when he is under contract until 30th June 2014.

Good to see a club making a stand on wages.

Wonder if Cardiff are regretting spending the budget on Frazier Campbell now. 

Grayson sacked.

Adkins 4/11

That had been coming.

One of my favourite managers, for his interviews. Hope he does really well.

He went 1/10 for the Blackpool job as soon as he got the boot from Southampton.

Leroy Lita joins Wednesday on loan until the end of the season.

Not sure what I think.

Good news Ant you have Zaha til July

I am going to enjoy my lad while I can, before Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest come knocking...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfViUP-Ynaw

I'd have loved him at Oakwell.

Great signing IMO

Watford in for Jeremy Helan apparently from Man City.  Any thoughts from Weds fans - think he was on loan there.

Apparently we've gazumped the deal for a permanent move.

He was the guy that got booked twice V hudders wasn't it but not sent off?

From BBC

"Wilfried Zaha says he is delighted at his summer move to Manchester United  but insists his "focus" remains on winning promotion with Crystal Palace."

Nice swerve!

Yes I think so.  The Sheff Weds forum are upset about it which is a good sign.

One guy posted "Fook Watford - first they sell us Taylor, then they nick Helan"

:)

Nearly certain I still have to pay up!

Still not been confirmed 100% yet, but it looks like he will be a Manchester United player by the end of January and effectively sold to them from us, so Aaron wins the bet. He is being loaned back to us during the summer.

However, I am hearing murmurings that Man U aren't too happy of the risk that Zaha is doing, by playing for Palace until the summer and it still may be just a pre arranged deal.

All pretty confusing and I am waiting on it to be done and dusted and that has been stated has happening mid week, next week.

The bet was on Zaha being sold in Janurary, rather than playing for another team from February onwards, so looks 99% likely I am paying up. Which I am going to when it is finalised.

The bet included all add ons in the price so I was £4m off, as i was allowed £19m. Interesting though to look at the 10% sell on clause supposedly in his contract. If Zaha shines under Ferguson and moves on in the future for £40m, do I technically win the bet and have a right to ask Aaron for £200 in the future? Ha.

How have I not seen not seen the goal starting at 00:30 before?

Might get in my all time top 10.

Fantastic stuff.

Helan is a good player.

Can play left back (not his best position) and left midfield (much more impressive here).

He is a tall, strong, quick (but not lightening quick) and composed on the ball.

He gave Wednesday great balance down the left side where we were vunerable previously.

Love You Dung Beetle.

Brilliant 3 points for Watford.
Living the Dream.

A win at Bristol City midweek puts us second.  Cardiff are so good at grinding out wins though :(  Going to be tought to catch to land the 200-1 for first place!

I am pretty sure you are going t pay up, so not worried.

But I've heard the deal could be worth upto £15m, so he would need to be sold for around £70m for you to get the money back, not going to happen.

As for it being a pre-arranged deal, I can't understand why he would go for medical, agree fee and save it for later? Also been said it is against Football League rules. So not a chance it will be pre-arranged.

Moving on to the weekend results...

Another win for Wednesday. Bristol City badly needed a result against Ipswich or yesterday it probably was a confirmation of relegation. Ipswich needing players, Wolves in bad form and Huddersfield in even worse.