Paul Merson has revealed in an interview with the Express and Star that Nottingham Forest had mentioned a player swap deal for Matt Fryatt.

Merson’s nightmare scenario has always been that an offer will be made for the England under 19 star that the club and player will want to accept, but too late for him to look for a replacement before the transfer deadline.

One answer to that is, of course, a player in exchange for at least part of the fee and, this week, as he expects an increased offer from Forest for Fryatt, Merson has revealed that their former Ipswich Town and Crewe star David Johnson was verbally offered to him as part of the unacceptable opening gambit.

While it is likely that Forest will come back with more cash this week, it still seems unlikely that Fryatt will want to move to another club in the same division and Johnson’s wage demands would be likely to be too high for the Saddlers, although Merson has said in the paper that he is an admirer of the player and he does have similar attributes to Julian Joachim and could play the lone striker role in the 4 5 1.

I had thought of trying to do the impossible today and do a full preview of the first round Carling Cup tie at Selhurst Park. The problem is, who knows what the two starting elevens are going to look like?

Paul Merson last season at the same stage of the competition at Sheffield Wednesday, played a completely different eleven from that he had the previous Saturday. He has already said that he will be making changes to suit the opposition and the circumstances this season, so I really have no idea what the line up is likely to be. Certainly I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those players yet to start this season were lining up at kick off, such as Gerrard, Roper, Kinsella and Larossa. Fryatt, I would have thought, will be rested anyway, even without the possible need to stop him being cup tied.

As for Palace, normally I’d be saying the same sort of thing, as they would be resting players with promotion back to the Premiership being their only real priority. However, Michael Hughes, Jon Macken and Aki Rihilahti could all figure, as they are making their comebacks from injury. Don’t expect Andy Johnson to start, although, if selected, Macken and Dougie Freeman are no slouches at this level!

Predictions? Don’t be silly, that’s too much of an unknown when the line-ups are impossible to predict!