The Palace Fan

Sahko seems to go under the radar due to the ability of Zaha, AWB, Townsend etc. McArthur is in a weird boat where hes lost respect because hes not Max Meyer. If they swapped performances we would be craving about Meyer and moaning McArthur is finished.

That was one of my favourite games yesterday. The weather was perfect, home and away fans were happy to talk to each other with no animosity, getting in the ground was easy, the atmosphere Palace generated was fantastic and the performance from the team was brilliant. The only sad thing is that Wilfried Zahas celebration makes me think he will be off this summer. There was way too many thank yous. If theres interest from PSG we cannot stand in his way. Thankfully, I think we are better equipped as a team to cope with his loss than we would have been last year.

I've not seen the cost of shares yet, but I presume the way forwards (based on your suceess) is knowledge of players doing well in the top leagues in Europe? Shame really as my knowledge base is The Championship 😂 With the summer approaching, is it best to go for players like Rodrygo, Fiete Arp etc. who you think could get transferred to top clubs?

Is it too late to get on board with this now? Or with the transfer window coming up, is now a good time to get involved?

Well that's it. I'm Cardiff til I die.

I think the results were more important than the actual match quality this year given what we have been subjected too in the past couple of years. We have had an inactive champion for pretty much two years, the Becky Lynch movement gathered up some pretty good momentum for some time (although they tried their best to make it confusing as fuck) and I can appreciate why the Kofi story has become so engaging for many others. It didn't need classics, it just needed creative to get things right. Plus, given the way the crowd reacted the following night. I think Vince McMahon succeeded in making the hardcore Brooklyn crowd look like a bunch of ungrateful cunts.

This was the first time Benteke has started over Batshuayi. Batshuayi has been good for us but I think this was more to try and build Bentekes confidence who has been a good impact sub in recent weeks. If we have the funding in place and Chelsea are willing to sell, I'd definitely make Michy's signing a permanent one. Albeit recent accounts and owners wanting to sell suggest that's all unrealistic. Theres no point over analysing games like this. It's an honour to watch this Manchester City team who are the best Premier League team of all time. The quick movement and knowledge of their surroundings is of a standard I've never seen. What did make me laugh is the amount of idiots around me going on about not renewing their season ticket, moaning about not pressing against potential quadruple winners (funnily enough they scored twice when we tried that) and moaning that Roy needs to go because of the timing of the substitutions. We are Crystal fucking Palace. We historically belong in the bottom half of The Championship. We have a structure that's flimsy and accounts suggest it may not be sustainable. Be grateful you're seeing Wilf, AWB, Sakho, Andros, Luka etc instead of being constantly ungrateful.

We both got around the same percentage right

FOX have stated they want a more authentic show when Smackdown goes there and with the show in Saudi Arabia coming up I just presumed "business is business". Seth Rollins getting one over him on raw the show before wm is never a good omen. Credit to the producers though, that was a great WrestleMania. None of my underwhelming predictions came in because none of it was underwhelming. A 9/10 for me. If it wasnt botched roll up finish i would possibly be suggesting this was the greatest Wrestle Mania ever.

Predictions for tonight: Brawn Strowman to win the battle royal in some crap spot with the SNL guys. Somebody who actually needs to win the womens battle royal will win to appease the competitors. I hope for Sonya Deville. Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins to win (& lose the titles some time next month). Bayley & Sasha to win and be long term champions. Anybody but Rusev and Nakamura to win because Rusev is on some mad and unnessecary PPV losing streak. Triple H to win to satisfy his ego. The Miz to win, but Shane does something to satisfy his ego. Rey Mysterio to win because they seem to be betraying Samoa Joe as the worst tough guy ever when it matters Randy Orton to win because hes WWE and AJ Styles is TNA. Finn Balor to win because hes a demon. John Cena to cut off Baron Corbin and wrestle Kurt Angle in an enjoyable 20 minutes. Roman Reigns to win (& ends any chance of this generation creating another main eventer any time soon). Brock to retain. Crowd get pissed. Daniel Bryan to retain. Crowd get pissed. Becky Lynch wins main event to prevent a riot.

'NXT Takeover' was amazing. Pay per view of the year contender I reckon. The Johnny Gargano story over the last 18 months/2 years ranks up there as one of the best storylines WWE have ever told. Certainly with The Yes Movement story for the best of this decade. What a culmination that was to see him win and have his moment with Candice and Ciampa. I watched G1 Supercard on Saturday over the hall of fame. I was really enjoying the show until Enzo and Big Cass showed up. I'm 100% sure by securitys reaction it was a work which pissed me off more. If theres ever two things that dont scream 'Ring of Honor' its "was that real?" Segments and the tag team of Enzo & Cass. They've also signed The Beautiful People ten years after they were beautiful. On the other hand the NJPW stuff at the garden was brilliant. I've seen all the videos of the Hall of Fame incident. Whilst Dash Wilder is being hailed as a martyr I think people are overlooking the punches Travis Bourne initially threw at the bloke. The guy must have had a death wish to attack a legend in a career defining moment who is now 61 years old, a cancer survivor and whose previously had a stroke in front of a load of wrestlers. Oh I watched United We Stand which was a combination of TNA, Lucha Underground and a load of other companies. Production was poor, nothing noteworthy really happened, and TNA have for some reason bought back Rob Van Dam. Eli Drake (who is hopefully NXT bound) seems to have pissed off a lot of people by not participating in an inter gender match and has now been released. I dont think Don Callis ever really realised what they had in Eli Drake to be honest.

Theres now talk of the women not main eventing WrestleMania now. It's amazing how they manage to screw the momentum of so many simple things.

Other than Becky Lynch I can see a lot of mediocre endings for the fans too. I wouldn't be surprised if Brock wins given it looks like he may be staying, there's a Saudi PPV next month, and Roman has returned. Vince would love another Brock / Roman encounter at Wrestle Mania. Nobody else will but he will. Fans wouldn't give the scriptwriters credit for a Drew / Seth double at Wrestle Mania but they'd sure moan if they both lost. I'm secretly hopeing for Bryan to beat Kofi. I was a bit gutted we didn't see him win the title cleanly as I felt robbed of what would have been a fairytale story, but he looks really comfortable as the focus of the show. I hope he retains and the superstar shake up gives him new challengers. Also the fact Kofi doesn't have a chest annoys me. AJ/Orton I'm looking forward too. Randy Ortons done a really good job building it. Again, fans don't want to hear it but Randy winning from a story perspective as the WWE guy for 15 years makes sense. HHH/Batista can get fucked as can Miz/Shane. The inevitable HHH/Shane match at WrestleMania 50 bores me already. I'm not really feeling Kurt Angle's retirement match. The buzz of him returning wore thin when he kept wrestling one off matches too frequently. I'm sure Becky Lynch will main event Wrestle Mania and will win. It's quite integral that happens really. It's nice to see the scriptwriters riding on a wave of momentum. The difficult part will come when she's been Champion for a couple of months maintaining that momentum. People love the chase of a face but there's not many faces they get behind as Champion for a long period of time. For the foreseeable I see 'A NEW ERA' after Wrestle Mania with brand switches, then a 'NEW ERA' with nxt becoming a two hour third brand to compensate the growth of aew, and then a 'NEW ERA' when smackdown draws a bigger audience when it moves to fox.

Getafe

Well, needless to say I'm gutted. I'd do anything to see Crystal Palace play in a cup final again. However credit where it's due to Watford. I haven't been a fan of there style in the past but there's no denying they have turned themselves in to a very good team. Scott Duxbury, Andy Scott and Javi Gracia all deserve a lot of credit for what is happening down there. I think it's fair to say there efforts this season deserve to be rewarded with a day out at Wembley. I'm not sure where we really go from here. With the team we have on paper I feel it's fair to say that a 13th/14th placed finish and a quarter final knockout is a bad season. However it's not bad enough to start demanding that people lose there jobs. Our American investors are looking to sell so I think some form of stability on the pitch is necessary. It's a shame really. I think we will keep our best players (apart from maybe Aaron Wan-Bissaka) as I don't think other clubs will pay the fees we will demand. However, losing Batshuayi would hurt and I don't see us spending big if investors are looking to sell. This season was a good chance to turn us in to a top half club and we have lost it