(not so) Black Monday

Fresh from the morale boosting win against Peterborough, fans turned their attention to that most dreaded of days - transfer window deadline day. Whilst this bizarre phenomenon may give Sky Sports News the chance to wet themselves silly for the lion's share of 24 hours, for those of us in financial dire straits, it makes for a nerve shredding experience. The loss of Victor was a bitter pill for us all, but at the very least it was expected. However, little was known about how far the administrator was willing to go in the name of further cash injections. Would he try and keep the squad together, knowing that a League 1 bound team would do little to attract outside investment? Or would he take the money - flog all of our player assets, get some quick cash through the door and then hope for the best? For many of us, the later didn't bear thinking about. Speroni, Danns, Ambrose, Clyne - all up for grabs and all likely to go for rock bottom prices. Swanson might have been loving dicking about with his Star Trek style transfer machine in the Sky Sports News studio, but most Palace fans were spending the day dodging work and getting heavily acquainted with the refresh button.

As was to be expected, the rumours soon started swirling. Ambrose spotted at Sheffield Wednesday! Danns having medical at Southampton! Clyne on his way to Wolves! Well, as it turned out, there was more than a grain of truth to that last one. News soon began to filter through that Wolves - to be our opponents only two days later - had offered our mercurial right-back 10,000 big ones a week to move to the Black Country. To be fair, even I'd consider moving up there for that sort of wedge.

But as we braced ourselves for the worst, word got out that Clyney had turned them down, choosing instead to stick around and fight for the cause. Nice one Nate! Better still, 5pm came and went without news of further departures. But could it be true? Personally, I wasn't sure whether to be doing cartwheels or crying into my (well worn) keyboard. Everyone knew that the club was in dire need of player sale generated funds and yet... no action. The optimist in me saw this as a sure sign of an imminent buyer, but the devil on my shoulder persisted in continually whispering 'imminent collapse' into my ear. All of which added up to a very confusing state of affairs. I guess we'll only understand the hows and whys much further down the line - fingers crossed that there was method behind the madness after all.

In terms of losing players, we're not out of the woods yet - indeed, with the loan window reopening in two weeks, we may yet see the team broken up, albeit on a temporary basis. Still, in the absence of little resembling fact, I'm choosing to stay positive. The fact that Danns and Clyne chose to copy our great leader by sticking with the club in its time of need speaks volumes about the current spirit in the camp. If we can continue to hold onto our lads then maybe, just maybe, the dream scenario of a heroic play off push could yet still be on the cards. At the very least, let's just thank our lucky stars that we made it though to the other side with something that still resembles a squad. In our current predicament, that's more than anyone could ask for. Onward!

Dan