Roy Hodgson happy with his Crystal Palace squad but refuses to rule out more signings
BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Roy Hodgson did not rule out the chance of bringing in some new faces to his Crystal Palace side, who suffered a 4-0 loss against Chelsea today, ahead of the Premier League transfer window closing imminently.
The defeat to the Blues condemns Palace to two successive defeats. Only able to register four shots on target in the 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge, and with none on target, the Croydon-born boss was quick to pay tribute to his squad over the long-term but was keen to point out that business this time around is not necessarily complete.
“You never know, the fact is it’s always a mistake to say we are done [with our business] because when there’s time left in the transfer window things sometimes occur, opportunities arise, and the club might decide they want to take them,” he said.
“But it’s not something that we are desperately seeking at this moment in time. We think that our squad is pretty much the squad that can see us through this season and see us through this season well. A lot of players are still recovering from injury, but they’ll be back very soon. We have Michy Batshuayi to add to our fighting power up front, but he wasn’t able to play because he’s a Chelsea loanee.”
When pushed on whether he would be happy to not sign any more players, he was more concerned about the potential of losing some, but was relaxed with the players at his disposal, despite the disastrous day in west London.
“I’m quite calm looking towards the rest of the season,” he said. “I will have to digest this defeat and take it on the chin today and suffer the pain that such defeats bring, but if we can see on a little bit of a wider scale and use more perspective then I do think that the squad that we have put together will be more than capable of getting us to where we want to be.”
Premier League clubs have until October 5 to complete deals with themselves or with foreign clubs. An additional window in which Premier League sides can do business with EFL teams runs until October 16.
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