Record offer for club icon
If Wilfried Zaha stayed at Crystal Palace next season, the Ivorian winger would complete his ten years with the Londoners. According to a report, the wage for this would be the highest salary that a player of the “Eagles” has ever received. But the 30-year-old is thinking about games that not only include interested parties such as PSG, Chelsea or Arsenal, but also the frustrating perspective at Palace. A look at Premier League transfer statistics could support doubts about the club’s ambitions.
With Zaha, Gündogan & Keïta: Most valuable players with contracts expiring in 2023
Like the newspaperThe Guardianswrites, Zaha could sign a contract for four more years and be paid £200,000 a week from the summer. That would make him by far the highest-paid professional in club history. But what stands in the way of a commitment is the lack of belief that Palace has a lot to gain in the short term.
Since promotion to the Premier League, which came fifth in the championship in 2013 through the playoffs, the team from Selhurst Park has never finished better than tenth in the House of Lords. Twice it was the eleventh, three times the twelfth, three times the fourteenth, once the fifteenth. Palace have mostly been cautious on the transfer market throughout this period, being the least-spent club this year and almost always the least or second least for the last five seasons. In the last season alone, the club was in the top 10 in the league in terms of transfer expenses. Since promotion in 2013, there is no team with lower investment in new players among any club also consistently in the Premier League during that period.
Zaha’s doubts about Crystal Palace: Brighton, Fulham or Brentford as role models
The fact that the “Eagles” have been able to stay in the elite league for ten years is remarkable for a club that previously played in the second division for eight years, but that is unlikely to meet Zaha’s requirements, especially since the player, who trained at Manchester United, will be in the coming Season turns 31 years old. The chances of a contract with a big club are dwindling.
Zaha’s eyes are set to be on the other clubs of comparable caliber – Brighton, for example, who rose four years after Palace but performed decidedly better. According to the Guardian, the good performance of Fulham and Brentford since the promotion must also be a role model in order to convince Zaha to stay. And Zaha should also take his time with the alleged contenders for a free transfer. At least at Arsenal and PSG, the focus is clearly on the Champions League. Chelsea, on the other hand, are currently only two points ahead of Palace and threaten to do little better than Zaha’s current club, where the 30-time international has now made 455 competitive appearances and 288 Premier League games. No one has ever achieved that number at Crystal Palace.
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