Read on below for his key quotes from Friday afternoon's press conference, or for the manager's pre-match team news, including updates on his new signings, as well as Michael Olise and Ebere Eze, click here.
Hodgson on Wharton, January transfers, Brighton & De Zerbi...
An eventful week for Crystal Palace Football Club concludes with a trip to arch-rivals Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend – and prompted a wide range of questions at manager Roy Hodgson's pre-match press conference...
On Adam Wharton…
“Doug Freedman in particular has followed him for a long period of time – not purely recently, he followed him even last season and had him flagged up as a player with great potential and a player maybe who would suit our style of play and would fit in very well here.
“The injury to [Cheick] Doucouré of course has increased, if you like, the need for a player who's capable of playing in that position, who has the qualities needed for that position and that prompted us to go in for Adam, who is young, so we have to accept that he doesn't have the Premier League experience and there's going to be a certain amount of learning curve involved in his progression, but we do believe that he's got that incredible margin for progression and that he has all the qualities we're looking for in a player in that position.
“I think it's an excellent signing for the club both in the short term and also in the long term because he has a lot of football ahead of him at such a young age.”
On Palace’s targets in the January transfer window…
“I'm very happy with the business. I congratulate the club on the business they've done. I think it's been good business, they've done it very well.
“We would have been interested when we heard about the possibility of Maxwel Cornet from West Ham. That was something which excited us all, we would have been more than happy to invite him to join us.
“I thought maybe for a time that was going to be a possibility and the club certainly pursued it, but then West Ham decided that they weren't prepared to let him go, he wasn't going to be allowed out on loan after all, so unfortunately that fell through, which was a pity because I think he would have been a good addition to our squad.
“Transfers are frustrating – they're frustrating for everybody, not just managers, they're certainly frustrating for sporting directors and chairmen and owners who are trying to do the deals. And I suppose there is a sense of frustration, especially for Steve Parish and Doug Freedman who pursued this and pursued it in good faith and worked hard, if you like, to try and bring the deal about.
“But, of course, with all transfer deals, at the end of the day, it's the club who owns the player who decides. So you get the information: ‘are you interested? this is a possibility, would you like to pursue it?’ And you say ‘yes, oh yes, we'd like to pursue that’.
“But you're always at risk of the club later in the day saying ‘we've changed our mind, we're going to keep him’. And on this occasion, one can probably understand why, because one or two other players that they probably thought were leaving didn't go through.”
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On the strength of Palace’s squad…
“I've got to say that I thought we had enough in this squad of players even without the benefit of these two additions to get us through. But the big thing for us has really been getting Michael and Ebs back on the field again together.
“A statistic this morning that I sort of half felt in my head, but didn't actually have, was that only 17% of the games we've played this season have been with those two on the field together, so it was so good to get them back on the field together the other night.
“I've always believed that when that happens, the team will benefit and progress. Having two extra players of the quality that we've brought in, that can only help further and improve our chances of moving away from this relegation group.”
On facing Brighton & Hove Albion…
“Certainly it [the rivalry] resonates with the older ones. It’s like everything else. When you bring new players into a club, you can tell them about these things.
“When I went to West Brom, that Wolves rivalry was very fierce and has shown itself to be fierce, there weren't that many players, to be frank, in the club at West Brom at the time who were aware of that because it goes back too far in time.
“But we make them aware of it and the fans certainly make them aware of it, and what we do know is it's going to be a tough game because Brighton are a good side.
“The derby-type rivalry adds an extra kick to it. But whether that kick's there or not, whenever you go to play Brighton, especially away from home, you know that you're in for a tough game because they're not eighth in the table for no reason. They're there because they play well.”
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On following up from Tuesday night’s win…
“Well, it’s a very different game. I mean, you follow up, I suppose, by trying to prepare the team as well for the next game at Brighton and what Brighton are going to bring to the table and what we've got to deal with, and what we’ll have to do to overcome them in the same way as we tried to do that in the game before we played Sheffield [United].
“Every game is different in this league. The one thing that is a given in the league is it's not going to be easy, and if you want to get a result from the game, you're going to have to bring your best game to the field and play well.
“You’re going to have to accept there's going to be a lot of drama, maybe even heartache and excitement involved because I think the game last night that I watched on television [between Wolves and Manchester United] encapsulated the Premier League perfectly.
“That drama, that excitement, a team at half time looking as though they were going to win the game comfortably, the other team coming back strongly and then the excitement of that last 10 or 15 minutes… you will find that very, very hard to reproduce outside of live sport. That's what live sport does.
“We are largely a football country and very interested in our football, so live football as a drama is so important and we have to thank, I think, the Premier League for constantly providing that level of entertainment, that level of drama to entertain the fans at the game but also the millions and millions who watch it on TV.”
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On Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi…
“He's obviously gone in there. He's taken over a team that was playing very attractive football, if we're to be honest, even before he came in, so it's not something which has gone from night to day.
“Under Graham Potter I thought they were a difficult team to play against. Their passing was good. They racked up hundreds and hundreds of passes and kept the ball very, very well. You had to work hard to get the ball from them. Roberto's carried that on, possibly improved upon it as well, that's not for me to say. I don't follow him week after week.
“But I certainly admire the work he's done and I certainly admire the way they play and the way the club has been run because their recruitment's been excellent.
“They’ve obviously brought in the players that they think they need to play the sort of football that first Graham Potter, now Roberto De Zerbi, are keen to play.
“And maybe even more credit should be given to them because when Graham left them for Chelsea, that left a void and they had to find someone who was going to come in and certainly continue in the same vein, I guess, as Graham had done, and they found exactly the right man to do that.
“The success they've had and the praise he received for his work, I think it's fully deserved.”
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On his first impressions of Adam Wharton…
“I’ve found him a very mature nigh-on 20-year-old.
“Someone with a calm confidence, a clear idea of what he's good at and what he needs to do. A big ambition and a big desire to want to do well and go from being an already established Championship player to being an established Premier League player.
“And perhaps most importantly of all, someone who's really happy to be here, someone who really wanted to come and join Crystal Palace and take his chance of becoming a Premier League player with our club.
“Those things are important too. It's very nice to have people around you who want to be here, who believe in the club, who care for the club, who understand the importance to everyone, the fans and everyone in this area of south-east London, how important this club is.
“We're delighted to welcome him and I'm pretty certain that our fans and everyone who watches him play are going to be pleased with what he brings to the club.”
On the squad’s young nucleus…
“I think that's good. I mean I think that the real boost came in 2021 with the signing of four to five players, all of whom were young, hungry. You can add to that one we'd signed a year earlier in [Ebere] Eze, and suddenly that group of players formed a very young nucleus really of exciting young players.
“I think since that time we've tried to keep that going, the club has tried to keep that going, because you know that that nucleus there of players of that age will serve you in good stead for a period of years.
“If you're with an ageing team, as we were really for four years and they were good guys and they were good players, but you knew that the future had in some way to be modified because you couldn't expect these guys to go on forever.”