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Rejects and nightmares that Palace’s Pardew must avoid

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Yesterday, GOLDIE listed the five players who he would like to see Palace sign (or at least not sell), during the summer. Here, he let’s us in on the players he really never wants to see in a Palace shirt – plus one current squad member he believes manager Alan Pardew should cash-in on

Alan Pardew: let’s hope he’s reading this

There are, it’s fair to say, plenty of journeymen players out there who you really never want to see driving up to the Palace training ground in their shiny, footballers’ edition sports car with the cherish plates, for a medical and contract negotiations.

So for the purposes of this exercise, I’ve limited the shit-list to those players who have been linked with Palace already this summer, and to those players who have over recent weeks had me waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, such has been the nightmares they’ve summoned up.

I just hope, for the sake of my sleeping patterns, Alan Pardew is reading this, because here’s my list of players who we shouldn’t be touching with the a very long stick…

On the unwanted list: Glen Johnson

Glenn Johnson

Please. Just no!

There’s a reason that a club such as Chelsea lets an England international right-back leave to join Premier League rivals. And there’s a reason that Johnson, once on £100,000 a week wages, has not been kept on the books at Liverpool. He was just never good enough.

Johnson’s not very good in defence, and even when he races forward like the frustrated winger that he is, his crossing and final pass has never been up to it, either.

As Palace progress and develop as a side, overpaid and over-rated 30-year-old discards from other Premier League clubs ought to be no longer even considered as the kind of players we want, or need. Let’s hope Johnson’s deal with Stoke goes through…

Idrissa Gueye

Idrissa Gueye: Villa-bound?

One of the things that give me sleepless nights is when a player that I don’t particularly rate has been linked in the papers with Aston Villa, and then Tim Sherwood doesn’t actually ink the deal.

Now if Sherwood gets second-thoughts on a player, there must be something wrong with them.

Senegalese international midfielder Gueye is, for now, still a Lille player. Although at 23 he has the right sort of age profile that we should be considering, looking at his career so far, it is hard to see what Palace would be buying, for £10 million, that we don’t already have provided amply by Mile Jedinak.

Charlie Austin

Over-rated: Charlie Austin

Footballers’ agents have a lot to answer for. A quiet word here, a quick call there, and suddenly one of their clients is a back-page headline being linked with a multi-million-pound transfer to Manchester United, City or Chelsea.

What other possible explanation is there for the transfer stories surrounding Charlie Austin?

If only it was Steve, and not Charlie Austin, then Palace might want to sign a $6 million man. But the price tag on the QPR striker is closer to £15 million. Can there ever have been an England-qualified striker more over-rated? (Answers on postcards only, please…).

Austin’s 18 goals last season in a poor QPR side was a respectable return, but he appears to be overweight and lacking in pace, and simply not mobile enough. Glenn Murray’s best work is to hold up the ball and feed the runners from midfield. It is hard to see how there could be a place in the Palace side for Austin and Murray together.

Dani Osvaldo

One thing Palace really want to avoid bringing into the dressing room at Selhurst Park is trouble. And a 29-year-old striker, who took his job description a tad too seriously with one of his own team mates on the training ground, sounds like trouble to me.

Southampton effectively sacked their Argentina-born £15 million record signing Dani Osvaldo at the end of the season, after he’d been suspended since January 2014 following a fight with Jose Fonte.

Of course, that means Osvaldo is now up for grabs for free, but at what cost to the morale in the Palace dressing room? And how good a player is he, anyway? In 14 Premier League games for Southampton, Osvaldo scored just three goals. He’s simply not worth the risk.

Time to say goodbye: Yannick Bolasie

Yannick Bolasie

There are some players you want to keep at the club, no matter what. But there are others when it is right to let them move on. Especially if the price is right. That time may have arrived with Yannick Bolasie.

Whatever else you might think of Arsene Wenger, he has always been good at being unsentimental when it comes to the right time to sell: Terry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Manu Petit, even Cesc Fabregas… rarely has a player left Arsenal and gone on to be a better player elsewhere.

The time may have come to see whether Alan Pardew can exercise similar judgement with Bolasie. And if he can get £18 million or more from Tottenham, then that surely would be a deal which would be in our club’s favour.

Let’s face it, if Bolasie has been favouriting tweets linking him to a move to Spurs, in his head, the player’s half way to White Hart Lane already. Thanks for the memories, Yannick.


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