Yeah But to be thinking you could be back up and a chance to play surely you would be disappointed. Do you not think he is was good enough then ?
Personally I think he performed well enough to be given a chance in our squad, however him going out on loan is definitely a better option. There seems to be a lot of negativity towards him on here, for no reason. He is very young, came into a championship topping squad (at the time) and didn't look out of place at all. I don't see what everyone has against him.
Big difference between was and is - which one are you going with? We're not comparing like-for-like. Was he good enough for Championship football? Yeah I'd say so, but only as back up. I doubt we'd have got 2nd place had he started most of our matches instead of Fonte or Hooiveld. Is he good enough for Premiership football? Well no-one can be sure until he's given a chance, but I'm happy to go on record and say that I don't think he's good enough for the Premiership at the moment. At least a year of regular Championship football away, if not more.
Palace are a solid, well organised and efficient side. He'll learn well there. Even before he went, it was anticipated that we'd buy another centre half and his chances would be quite limited. He needs competitive experience and lots of it to step up to the next level and I don't think we're in an ideal position to give him that.
The reality was he was only going to play U-21/reserve for us this year anyway. Maybe a cup game but likely not a league game. Much better to play Championship football than reserve. He will learn a lot more and have to play much harder. That makes it good for him to get that tough experience and good for us because if he does well he will be much closer to a PL player when he returns than he is today.
He came to us at an unfortunate time for him. Driving for successive promotions (i.e. not consolidating before moving up a division) meant he had less opportunities in the first eleven. That said, I think he does have the potential; watched him at Eastleigh before he came to us; I think he is looking better each season, but really needs a run of games. So the CP is a bonus for him and for us. Good enough in the future for the PL? Its too soon to comment - especially for a central defender who seems to peak in his late 20's. In fact, none of us truely know if any of our squad are good enough. What we do know now is we need to additional central defenders to cover Fonte and Jos. I can only presume that they have let AM out on loan because they have someone lined up.
Popped onto a Palace forum and they seemed pretty positive about this. I gather that Gardner is expected to leave and that Palace only have young kids below him an McCarthy, so they are pleased to have Martin on board.
