Finally...

[Guvnor]

Well with all the money that both teams have received from going up, you have to take into consideration your £80m debt compared to our £0 debt, we've started spending it already with the likes of Gayle, Gosling, Thomas, and have apparently got about 4 to 5 more players joining us before the season starts. Holloway might have been only just relegated Blackpool on the last day of his season but he's got a lot more experience in this league than your gaffer.


And as for the stadium, our owners are renovating that to go up to 40k.

Ha, I wouldn't expect you to see it any other way. I look at Palace's recruitment and I'm not sure its the calibre of player you need to survive in the premier league. Dwight Gayle looked decent in a struggling championship side, the others don't exactly put frighteners on anyone. I'm not saying Cardiff are going to be world-beaters either, but just feel we have a squad that is probably 2/3 the way to doing okay.

Yeah, Holloway had a relegation season in the prem. Not sure that counts for much, 2-3 years on he still can't organise a defence; that's probably where Malky has the edge. We may not play as expansive football as Palace do, but we're fit, organised, have a decent spread of goalscorers, and enough match winners that might just be enough to keep us afloat.

I expect Palace will be a lot like Blackpool were. They'll have plenty of great days, probably turn one or two decent teams over, but will ultimately go down. Holloway did well to get Palace up, it will be an even bigger achievement to stay up with a side built around championship trundlers and journeymen like Murray, Ramage and Phillips.

I am interested to see how players like Jon Williams and Bolasie go in the premier though. Williams is a neat and tidy player, and I think Bolasie was arguably as good as Zaha at times (maybe without the press hype). There'll be a lot of responsibility on him to fill Zaha's role in the team.

I've said all this, now watch Palace take six points off us and finish mid table respectability.

[Flins.]

Holloway's mentality with Crystal Palace is vastly different to how he set up his Blackpool team. Go watch the playoff final again and see how well he can structure a teams defense, Watford were one of the more creative, dynamic teams in the Championship last season and they were completely nullified against Palace. If he can find the right balance, I see Palace getting better results than Cardiff & Hull IF they strengthen. I think they suffered toward the tail end of last season due to a lack of squad depth and over reliance on certain players in the attacking department.

I think Cardiff and Hull are similar, playing more conservative football, I can possibly see one of them pulling a Norwich, Hull have made the strongest signings imo, but then again, they had the weakest team.

Who is the guy Cardiff signed? Never heard of him.

[Rob]

Also, go watch our defense against Brighton over both play-off semi final legs.

[Guvnor]

Holloway's mentality with Crystal Palace is vastly different to how he set up his Blackpool team. Go watch the playoff final again and see how well he can structure a teams defense, Watford were one of the more creative, dynamic teams in the Championship last season and they were completely nullified against Palace. If he can find the right balance, I see Palace getting better results than Cardiff & Hull IF they strengthen. I think they suffered toward the tail end of last season due to a lack of squad depth and over reliance on certain players in the attacking department.

I think Cardiff and Hull are similar, playing more conservative football, I can possibly see one of them pulling a Norwich, Hull have made the strongest signings imo, but then again, they had the weakest team.

Who is the guy Cardiff signed? Never heard of him.

I agree with this in part. Watford were largely a counter-attacking team, and they were excellent at it in the most part. I remember we went to Vicarage Road and completely nullified them too, so I wouldn't say Palace doing it in a tense knock out game was that stand-out.

It's easy to point to one game and say Holloway fixed it, but the fact is Palace had the joint worst defence of the Championship's top 10 last season (and they only scored one more goal than Cardiff), and his Blackpool side actually scored more goals and conceded less over their 46 regular season games (the difference in points was 2 more for Palace, but both seasons he won 19 games). Maybe Holloway has changed the way he organises his teams, but I'd argue statistics suggest for the worse.

Honestly, I've no idea who the guy is we've signed. It's a lot of money for someone who's scored a few goals in the Danish league, but I guess, as a Cardiff fan, we have to trust that Malky doesn't make too many bad decisions. He's pretty meticulous in his transfers, and you probably don't even need a single hand to count his transfer failings so far.

[Kirk]

I think that Stoke, Villa, Norwich and Sunderland will all be poor again this season, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of the promoted teams stay up. I hate Holloway, so I'm hoping Palace have a poor start and get rid of him (sorry Rob).

[Rob]

You are forgetting Holloway wasn't our manager all season. Dougie Freedman started as our boss till around Christmas and had a poor start till late September really, losing to teams like Bristol City and Middlesborough

[Dorling]

Honestly, I've no idea who the guy is we've signed. It's a lot of money for someone who's scored a few goals in the Danish league, but I guess, as a Cardiff fan, we have to trust that Malky doesn't make too many bad decisions. He's pretty meticulous in his transfers, and you probably don't even need a single hand to count his transfer failings so far.

He's been playing a good standard of football since a young age and was a late bloomer, so he was initially quite small. From what I've read he became very technically sound because of his lack of size and then had a growth spurt so became the big, strong dude that he is now. He banged in a fair few goals for a 19 year old last year and he has been linked with bigger teams in the past, including my Arsenal. I think he will do just fine.

[Guvnor]

He's been playing a good standard of football since a young age and was a late bloomer, so he was initially quite small. From what I've read he became very technically sound because of his lack of size and then had a growth spurt so became the big, strong dude that he is now. He banged in a fair few goals for a 19 year old last year and he has been linked with bigger teams in the past, including my Arsenal. I think he will do just fine.

I hope you're right.

You are forgetting Holloway wasn't our manager all season. Dougie Freedman started as our boss till around Christmas and had a poor start till late September really, losing to teams like Bristol City and Middlesborough

Palace were 4th when Freedman moved to Bolton (who were 16th), which is why the move seemed such a surprise to everyone (I'm sure after losing first 3 games, Freedman won the next 6-7 putting Palace top or 2nd at one stage). Palace finished 5th under Holloway, so you could argue he actually made the team worse.

Just did a quick stats check. When Freedman left Palace for Bolton, Palace were better off by six points and 12 places. At the end of the season Palace were better off by 4 points and just 2 places in the table.

Palace under Freedman: Won 6, drew 2, lost 3 (win %: 55; ave points per game: 1.82)
Palace under Holloway: Won 11, drew 12, lost 9 (win % 34; ave points per game: 1.41)

Goals for and against backs up the point Holloway's Palace were tighter and less expressive since they scored and conceded fewer goals than Freedman's Palace.

Loss % is about the same for both, but its clear Freedman won more games for Palace and gained more points per game. I'm not saying Palace got promoted because of Freedman, that would be unfair on Holloway who did manage almost 75% of the games; I am suggesting though that Palace might have gone up auto or as champions under Freedman. I guess we'll never know.

Incidentally Freedman beat Cardiff twice out of three games last season, once with Palace, once with Bolton; Holloway lost both games against us: once with Blackpool, once with Palace (although both Freedman's games were at home, Holloway's were away). We also got slaughtered by Bristol at the start of the season, but that didn't count for much.

Probably sounds like I've got a chip on my shoulder about Holloway. I have; I can't stand the man. Not only does he think he's better than what he is, over hypes his own teams and players, but there's too much history between him and Cardiff for me to forget. He never got over us beating his QPR team in the play off final in 2003, always quick to take swipes at Cardiff over the years. And yeah, I guess I never forgiven him for 2010. I'll never forget that day and how shit I felt after it, having to see that smug wanker celebrating, lol.

But I like Palace, I've always liked their fans, and had some great away days at Selhurst (usually losing mind). So I wish them well if they sack that idiot from Bristol, lol!

[Rob]

And before Freedman went on this great run we were 3 wins in 27 games... His defensive tactics were abysmal with very much the same defenders