Heb 7:4

I guess it wasn't rubbish.

Transfer Centre Live ‏@TransferCentreL 7m7 minutes ago Crystal Palace have made a bid for Bolton Wanderers midfielder Lee Chung-Yong Nothing at our end that this is true, it's in the Sun and Sky Sports. Probably rubbish.

I was always more of a recorder man. But my rendition of "Mary had a little lamb" has yet to be taken up enthusiastically by the Selhurst faithful.

Blimey, what's got your goat? I get that any group of fans being self-congratulatory can be tedious, but we've been working at the atmosphere at Selhurst for years. Like most clubs our away support was always fine, but ten years ago or so the atmosphere at Selhurst had become absolutely pony. It was just depressing. A group of fans got together in 2003 through the messageboards with the purpose of just singing all match. Then in 2005 another group got together in another stand (which was the HF, our 'ultra' group), again with the aim of signing all game no matter what. I couldn't really give a toss if we're better than other clubs or not (I'm just glad that Selhurst is a joy to go to again) but it's not a new Premiership driven thing. Anyway, happy new year. How's Dougie doing?

Rumoured to becoming on loan to us at Palace for a month (cover for KG who's off to the African Cup of Nations). What was he like for you? Decent player?

Eagles should clearly be playing for us.

'twas tounge in cheek. We don't really mind, as Holloway is also well known for having an eye for a decent player. Though our chairman was joking that Dougie would be back for the tea lady next

Quite. Big money buys don't win you this league. We've tried it enough in the past, and they flop as often as they succeed. Shrewd purchases of talented hungry players are what you need, and Dougie has an eye for them. And if he doesn't, our chief scout who you also stole does. I think you'll have a few "eh, who?" signings that will end up doing the business.

£2.2million, including subs

Strange article. Firstly the notion that we'd sell the league's top scorer for £1million, secondly the notion that Murray would be particularly happy to link up with Dougie. He benched him for most of last season in favour of Martin (who we had on loan from Norwich). Was odd at the time, even stranger in hindsight.

I wasn't suggesting you wouldn't have to pay it up. But if he thinks someone is detrimental to team harmony, isn't working hard enough, and refuses to be sold, don't be surprised to see him do it!

£6million! You can build a whole team for half that! This is our team that beat Brighton yesterday Speroni (£500k) Ward (£400k) Ramage (Free) Delaney (Free) Parr (undisclosed, only had a few months left on contract, rumoured to be £200k) Dikgacoi (£600k) Jedinak (Free) Zaha (Free/Youth) Bolasie (£250k) Garvan (£250k) Murray (Free) Subs Moxey (Undisclosed, rumoured to be £200k) Moritz (Free) Wilbraham (Free) Now you might say we're punching above our weight, but still we aren't garbage and we're top of the table at the moment with a team costing £2.2million. Brighton paid more than that just for CMS I don't think getting out of this division is about throwing money at players. Plenty of teams have tried that and failed. It wasn't how you originally got out of Tier 2 and established yourselves in the Prem was it? I don't think it'll be your salvation now. Dougie has a genuine eye for a player, and every player is saleable. The difficulty I guess is if you have players on lucrative contracts who'd rather sit on their arses and collect a pay packet. But then Dougie's shown he's happy to simply cancel contracts too. I don't mean to big him up too much, as he's not perfect. His obsession with Italian football and defending single goal leads isn't the most exciting to watch, but he really can build a team and his attention to detail in the background is second to none. Holloway couldn't believe the set up here when he arrived. If you give him time, I think he'll take you up and quite possibly keep you there. But until he ships out those he thinks aren't up to it and gets in those who are, it's a bit harsh to judge him.

Look at us! He brought in Bolasie for only £250,000 from Bristol City, convinced Moritz to come and play for 20% of what he was on in Turkey, Ward picked us over higher paying Ipswich on the basis of Dougie convincing him. He really is good in the transfer market. You have saleable players. He'll ship out any player who he deems doesn't take training and fitness seriously enough, regardless of their talent. He'll bring in some decent players who will improve you without breaking the bank. This isn't his team at the moment. He really is a good young manager who, if you give him the time to do it, will reshape your team for the better.

From a Palace perspective we never really saw him as a tinkerer, except in making room to bring young players through which is a good thing. If I were you lot I'd wait until January. The players Dougie brought into Palace have been mostly inspired signings, and you have more of a budget than we do. He's also ruthless. If he's tinkering now it's because he wants to see people before he decides who's getting the chop. He sold Ambrose and Scannel in the summer for us, two of the fan favourites, but he was right. We're a better balanced team without them.

Dougie is a massive fan of Italian football. Even as a player he used to go out there for the summers to coach, and he firmly believes that the right approach is to concede no goals and try to nick one at the other end. We had one of the tightest defences in the league last season (but lost most of our back four in the summer). Doesn't quite match how we have played this year, but that is partly down to our chairmen demanding a change (which is rumoured to have annoyed Dougie a lot). There is no doubt, with Fleming, he will make you a solid defensive outfit.