Wilfried Zaha: on his way, if the price is right
Wilfried Zaha will leave Crystal Palace in the next transfer window – provided the money is right.
That’s the stark conclusion from an interview given by Palace chairman Steve Parish.
Zaha handed in a transfer request just before the English transfer window slammed shut earlier this month, but Parish turned down all offers for the Eagles’ star player.
“I’ve watched him every week for 10 years, he scored the first goal in the first game after we bought the club when he was 16. So there’s even a bit of me that wants to see what he can do at a top club, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be the person who stopped that,” Parish said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
For Parish, Everton was not good enough for Zaha, and a £40million offer from Arsenal no where near enough for Palace.
And before Palace sell the 26-year-old winger, Parish says that they must find a replacement for the apparently irreplaceable Zaha.
Tabling a move: Steve Parish
“I’m sure it has a happy ending for everybody,” Parish told the Mail‘s Martin Samuel.
“I feel he deserves to get there, I hope it happens and sometimes it mystifies me he’s not up there already. I don’t know what he’s got to do – run the length of the pitch and beat four players? If people stood in my shoes having to replace him, trying to find someone in world football to do what he does, they would know
“We’re lucky to have him. But if that top club comes along and the money’s right, he’s an extraordinary talent and it’s going to be very difficult for us.
“It was just at that moment, we weren’t aligned but I’ll try to find a solution from here. Aaron Wan-Bissaka went to Manchester United so if top clubs come in for our players with the right money – then it’s just a timing issue. We have to make a plan for the evolution of our squad. Wilfried won’t be at our club forever, and we must be ready for him to go, if he does go. The last day of the transfer window, however, is not going to be it.
“We didn’t have a bid of the value we place on the player. I understand people want to further their career, or just want a change. But it was the right decision for Crystal Palace and at some time in the future, we’ll find a solution.
“Either this football club goes in the direction that would make Wilfried want to stay, or there is an offer that suits us, suits him, and will work.”
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