Dougie Freedman has been right in the crosshairs of many Crystal Palace supporters this summer, but the sporting director’s reasoning for not splashing the cash is actually fairly logical.
Palace baffled plenty of people when the clock struck 5pm on August 8 and Aaron Wan-Bissaka was still not replacing sufficiently, despite leaving for £50million over a month prior.
Speaking to the Balance podcast, as cited for the Evening Standard, Freedman took the time to explain exactly why the Eagles couldn’t reinvest that money into Roy Hodgson’s squad:
People know we have got a bit of money from the Aaron Wan-Bissaka deal so prices are inflated. It is the first time we’ve been in this position, it is very difficult. Every Palace fan out there, of course, they want us to sign some players and I get that but we also want to be responsible.
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I’m not actually going to jump on the bandwagon here because I think Freedman is speaking complete sense here.
Once clubs know that Palace have just received £50m for their star man, it’s always going to be more difficult to secure a replacement because clubs will be more difficult about selling their stars.
You could argue Palace should’ve had a replacement lined up before the Wan-Bissaka sale, however, this isn’t a video game, it isn’t FIFA, but what it is is a difficult market.
