CRYSTAL Palace columnist SAM ROSS is becoming increasingly fearful after a lack of summer signings at Selhurst Park.

SO a new season is just days away and while 2011-12 took far too long to finish, I am now wishing there were a couple more weeks until the start of the new campaign.

I can't wait for the season to get going in terms of watching football but like many Eagles fans I think we are a bit short of players at the minute.

Dougie Freedman has encouraged supporters to trust him, which I do, perhaps a bit too much for someone I barely know.

But I fear this could be his hardest season in charge of the Eagles to date.

He has escaped relegation twice so far as a coach at Palace but now fans are for the first time since administration starting to expect things to happen at Selhurst.

So far Palace’s biggest signing has been landing Eddie Izzard as associate director.

And while the club’s PR department seem to have done a good job with drumming up the Eagles' image, including a cringe-worthy video of 'Call Me Maybe' by the Crystals, the less said about that, the better.

Back to footballing matters and while I am looking forward to seeing how Joel Ward fits into the side, it is getting slightly concerning we haven’t added a great deal of quality.

We have lost three key players in Darren Ambrose, Sean Scannell and Nathaniel Clyne, which were surprising, understandable and good moves in my opinion.

I thought Ambrose was in it for the long run at Palace and keen to try and get them back in the Premier League, but obviously not.

I know a lot of fans were angry to see one of their own go in Scannell but for me that is a very understandable move and what is refreshing is he has gone for footballing reasons.

Scannell loves playing football and was often down at Goals Soccer Centre and Crystal Palace Sports Centre during the close season, so I can see why, after a frustrating season as a substitute player, he has joined Huddersfield.

Clyne’s transfer to Southampton is great move where he will play regular football and improve even further as a player, not necessarily through better coaching but by playing against quality attackers every week in the Premier League.

What is worrying is they haven't been replaced, although Freedman has said he has lined up two “exciting” loan signings.

Last season the Eagles boss spoke of a mission he was on with Palace and that needs to gain a lot of momentum this year or fans may start to run out of patience.

I am still convinced Palace will achieve something special under Freedman but I expect he will need to get through a fair amount of criticisms this season if his aim is not to push for the play-offs this year.

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt