Rayvin

Wondered if Pardew might potentially do us a favour at the last and keep Palace up at their expense

So I got bought copious amounts of red wine over Christmas (fair way through a bottle currently) and have startlingly begun to appreciate the differences between certain kinds. I'm not sure I ever thought I'd get to the level of wine snobbery required to do this, but there it is. My favourite currently is Montepulciano. I think Italian reds seem to be my overall preference. Also discovered Bourbon this winter, which was a joyous moment...

A year ago I would have said the same thing but ultimately, I think it's one of those things where it actually bothers me less if I just accept that this is the way this stuff is. Agreed on your latter point - and I actually think the signs are good in that respect. Wenger doesn't look poised to make a move, and he's supposedly the only one interested.

Do we reckon Sunderland might yet get relegated, or is that wishful thinking? They're starting to look a bit precarious.

I think, whoever we get, we should remember that a serious alternative is Carver. That prospect alone should buy the new manager some time as far as we're all concerned.

No point in getting worked up about it in my opinion. I'd actually rather the players were honest about it than just jumping ship without any notice. The only thing I find frustrating is that the club, normally through Pardew, would now start hawking him around the PL. Since Pardew isn't here, maybe this won't happen.

That is a bit of a cheap goal tbf... Janmaat not doing us any favours blocking Krul either. Unfortunate.

All reasonable really, even though it stings a little to hear him talk about going to a bigger club.

4+ probably. Same as I did every time Pardew guided us to such defeats.

I'm just pleased that we didn't disgrace ourselves to be honest. Would have been very easy to do so. Moving on to the next game now anyway...

Very true!

Very clever...

It mentioned 4-1-4-1 as his preferred style there, switching to 4-3-3 when attacking. High pressing as well. Sounds ok to be honest, not that everything in there is positive.

90,000 would pass for a force sufficient to annex a small country these days... How do France even have that many police officers in Paris?

Expecting absolutely nothing from this match, would settle for a couple of shots on target, would be delighted with a goal. On the plus side, the much talked about medical miracle should mean that we're fielding a relatively decent team. Krul back should prevent the scoreline from exceeding 5 goals conceded. Chelsea are a touch out of form mind, and have thrown away an 8 point lead at the top of the division. With this in mind, I'm going to go for an optimistic 4-0 to Chelsea. Keep in mind also that Carver has confirmed he has Pardew's backing to do the job. The job presumably being to occupy one of the relegation spaces that Palace will be trying to avoid.

Bloody hell. To think that this is all at the behest of a few crazies... I hope they catch them alive but it's looking unlikely now.

As an aside from Ched Evans, did everyone see this: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/08/wojciech-szczesny-father-arsenal-per-mertesacker-rhinoceros He's not wrong about Mertesacker, but I can't imagine it went down well at training...

I agree in the overall scheme of things on the last point, but I'm taking the opportunity to be even slightly optimistic about the club; we might see something a bit different for a bit, there'll not be so much animosity for a while, etc. And has to be better than being stuck with Carver at least...

@CSD: Very decent of you. I may have entirely made that up to be honest, it was just a lingering memory of you saying you were trying to deflate all of us or something. I'm not about to go looking for it either. That said, apparently Garde has confirmed he's interested at least? Are you saying you don't rate him or just that someone else will swoop in for him before he signs? Not sure if the latter is likely to be honest...

Yeah but you always say stuff like that - and I think you said it in the Pardew build up about the chances of him leaving, so you aren't always right. Hope springs eternal and all that. As for who gets it, if they're a decent coach they'll be able to make the best of what we've got at least, which is something that Pardew never managed.

I can't even see from his apology why he thinks the comparison was appropriate.... He has however done a sterling job in shifting the attention away from Oldham and Evans and onto himself.

FFS isn't the whole point of Jihad that they die carrying this shit out? Why are they trying to get away?

I find that entirely consistent with the club's approach to just about everything. I wouldn't worry about it, we could be getting Guardiola in and they'd not say a thing ffs.

If it's just one of those 'to the end of the season' things, it might be better than Carver at least.

Oh good god...