CRYSTAL Palace co-chairman Steve Parish says he was "perfectly at home" when bringing in a load of players last year.
A total of 16 were brought in before the end of the last summer transfer window, with Parish and former boss Ian Holloway doing most of the deals alongside chief executive Phil Alexander.
However, the arrival of sporting director Iain Moody has smoothed out the process, as seen in January with the acquisitions of Joe Ledley, Wayne Hennessey and Scott Dann in particular.
Parish, though, was heavily involved with signing Tom Ince on loan from Blackpool.
The co-chairman was also delighted to see Dwight Gayle show glimpses of why he paid a club record fee for the striker at the end of the season – and ram it down critics' throats.
"Had I ever been involved with buying players in the Premier League before last summer?" Parish told the Advertiser.
"Of course not. I was perfectly at home though. There was a mountain of work to do, which I why Iain Moody coming in was hugely helpful.
"There just wasn't enough of us at the time. But I stand by what we did last summer.
"We stayed up in the Premier League with probably the lowest wage bill in the league last year, let alone this year.
"I think we have brought in some good players. We were so thin, and you can't practice with yourself, you need 22 decent lads that can go and push each other week in, week out.
"Tom Ince contributes, then Jason Puncheon improves because Tom is on the bench. There are all sort of situations.
"Barry Bannan contributed massively last season, Adrian Mariappa has contributed massively and Dwight Gayle has too.
"How much stick did we get over Dwight on how much we paid for him? And now look at what everybody is saying."
Meanwhile, Parish was delighted to see Julian Speroni sign a new deal at Palace for another year and would like him to be involved with the club when he retires.
"I think we would like to see Julian really staying at the club and having a future, maybe on the coaching side - he's a massive part of the fabric of Palace," said Parish.
"Right now Julian wants to play and so he should, he's a fantastic keeper and a brilliant servant for the club."This interview features in Friday's Croydon Advertiser.
