Holding joins Palace on three-year deal

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson says his squad is stronger than it was at the start of the summer transfer window.

Hodgson feels the arrival of midfielder Jefferson Lerma on a free transfer from Bournemouth, forward Matheus Franca from Flamengo and goalkeeper Dean Henderson from Manchester United have bolstered Palace's overall squad as well as the starting XI.

That is despite the club not signing a forward and Hodgson having said after last Saturday's 1-1 draw with Brentford that Palace's squad was "three top first-team players lighter than it should be".

He also cautioned that spending significant sums of money in the transfer market did not guarantee success.

"Certainly if I was a Palace fan I'd be quite pleased with the team we'd be able to put out now and also with the bench we've been able to assemble. So it's not just the (starting XI). We've got more players and more competition. Bringing in Lerma, Franca and Dean Henderson, that shows the club's intentions and we want to get stronger.

"I think the danger with transfer windows is that the outside world, the media will make it a bit of a competition, you know, who can spend the most money, you know, we're bringing this one and that one and it becomes a bit of a competition.

"It's almost as if fans are have to be disappointed unless their club is spending hundreds of millions of pounds. Those clubs are not quite happy when things don't go quite so well, and those hundreds and hundreds of million pounds spent sees the club going into some sort of liquidation or bankruptcy they're not so happy at all then.

"There are times when people like myself really need to put it out there that it's not a question necessarily of piling up players, or spending hundreds of millions, it's a question of getting the right players and getting the ones that are going to help you and your club and do a good job for your club and make certain they can go out and produce performances that the fans would like to see."

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57y6KtnmWSobyov46tqZqmo5uys3nNnq6sZZSarqW4yKecZpyRrnqtrdOeqq1lpaWxosDErGaRsGJ7oZu3r45phadflpCRo6GHqW2nk2q0cA%3D%3D