Fortune favours the brave

And it appears that the brave are Sheffield United. News leaking out of planet Valley today is that Johnathan Fortune has rejected the potential offer of a contract to play in the third tier of English football, for a firm offer from Sheffield United to play in the second tier of English football. This has been on the cards for a while as the moulding of next seasons playing squad has been delayed by the prevarication of the takeover. It appears that we have lost both Holland and Fortune to this and whilst many may not mourn the loss of Holland (assuming that this is what will happen) it would be better if we were losing players through our choice not our inability to firmly supply a contract.

Fortune is a legend if only because of the part he played in the relegation of Palace - conceding a penalty and scoring the goal that deflated hope for the stripey nigels. As the Palace message boards say "Who's laughing now!"

We are now left with Llera and Mambo at centre half. Last season we started the campaign with only two central defenders - Fortune and Hudson - both of whom were much more accomplished than those we currently have, and that proved disastrous as injuries and new loans created confusion in defence until really Ward and Hudson partnered at the tail end of the season.

A fortnight tomorrow, we will be donning our replica shirts and probably be in our respective pubs chewing over the forthcoming match and season. For there to be any sense of positive atmosphere amongst the fans it appears that Parkinson and his team have a close season worth of work to do in the intervening time, but sadly they won't be able to start acting till the on / off takeover is sorted and that maybe why a top half finish for the addicks may be beyond us next season.
- panic ---- I'm beyond that now!!