Rumour: Zaha Summer 2021 Stays at the Palace

[Big Blue Eagle]

Might as well get this rolling for another year. Tweet from Palace Extra quoting an AC Milan site saying they had scouts at Selhurst on Saturday, seemingly looking at Wilf after “his entourage” may have offered him to the club.

[Jim Cannon]

He is too young for Inter, they will come back for him when is 34. We would still probably get 20M and he would get a 3 year deal with an option for a 4th

[andyocpfc]

No point selling him at all now. The money we would get wouldn't make it worth while with only 2 years left. Keep him until he's free to walk away into the sunset. He might well sign a new contract too when the big clubs don't come sniffing with the right money too. He's starting to lose some of his pace too which will discourage big clubs more.

[DAWSYEAGLE]

Originally Posted by andyocpfc

No point selling him at all now. The money we would get wouldn't make it worth while with only 2 years left. Keep him until he's free to walk away into the sunset. He might well sign a new contract too when the big clubs don't come sniffing with the right money too. He's starting to lose some of his pace too which will discourage big clubs more.

He is not a slave. If he wants out we will not have a choice.

[andyocpfc]

Originally Posted by DAWSYEAGLE

He is not a slave. If he wants out we will not have a choice.

Correct, he's not a slave. But we also have a say and who is going to stump up the money we would demand? (see previous 58 windows)

He's wanted out for a while now and it's not happened - why will it change now?

[Jim Cannon]

Originally Posted by DAWSYEAGLE

He is not a slave. If he wants out we will not have a choice.

This statement gets made every window. The fact is he has wanted out for ages, and the club will only sell him if we get offered enough, don't know why anyone still thinks he will get a move just because he wants one.

[spt1978]

Haven’t Inter’s Chinese owners just closed their club in China as they are only focusing on their core business of Retail. Not sure what this says about their future ownership of Inter.

I really don’t think Wilf will be going anywhere and the board would be reckless to sell when we have a massive rebuild on our hands.

[Wycombe Eagle#2]

Originally Posted by DAWSYEAGLE

He is not a slave. If he wants out we will not have a choice.

Erm doesn't work like that. If I offered you £10 for your house would you take it? The club will accept an amount they deem fair whilst also continuing to pay their employee very handsomely so using the term slave is not appropriate.

Fwiw I think the club would've let him go last time but the offers allegedly from Arsenal were an utter disgrace who were chancing their arm as usual for that shithouse of a club. The general consensus from supporters and media was we wanted anything between £70m-£100m. That was never going to happen but I honestly believe the club would've took nearer £55m but no one ever came in with that even apart from allegedly Everton which was at the 11th hour and far too late for us to find a replacement. SP may have his faults but I don't believe he'll let other clubs completely have us over.

The issue for Zaha now is his value had probably dropped due his age and contract slowly running down. If anyone offered £50m now I suspect the club would bite their hands off and wish Zaha well. Problem is no one is now going to offer that and it gets to the point where any offers will be so low what's the point in selling him as any replacement will cost far more by time Utd take their cut and no guarantee the replacement will be anywhere near as effective. As posters say above its getting to the stage where it may be best for all parties to knuckle down and allow the contract to run down allowing Wilf to sign as a free agent for mega Bucks when his contract expires.

[RisZero]

To put it bluntly, the season he will have had going into this window will have been far better than the season he had going into last summers window unless im mistaken, so I wouldnt cling too hard to the comfort of him not being able to find a move last time around

Theres also talk that fees will be dropping across the board post-covid, which we wouldnt somehow be the one exception to

In general better to be ready than to just assume nothing will happen

[aj4england]

He will either be sold this summer or run his contract down/accept a new contract on bumper salary. No real point in us accepting a £15-£20m transfer fee when he has 1 year left.

Either push for £50m plus this season or hold out for 2 more years.

[Jim Cannon]

Originally Posted by aj4england

He will either be sold this summer or run his contract down/accept a new contract on bumper salary. No real point in us accepting a £15-£20m transfer fee when he has 1 year left.

Either push for £50m plus this season or hold out for 2 more years.

I reckon we will do that, and next year when he is almost 30 he may even sign another deal here.

I honestly don't see us selling and definitely not at 50M. With all the players we need as it is, needing to replace Wilf as well would be too much.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Have said this on here a few times...

I sincerely hope somebody at the club is telling Wilf that he is already 'home', and that he's got something special with Palace which other players spend their entire careers looking for.

More than that, he can serve the community here and is already building a long-lasting legacy. He values the respect generated by his commitment to people and charity.

There is potentially so much more value for him personally and professionally by staying at the club and supporting its continued growth, compared to wandering away to play what could be a handful of European games, with no guarantees about trophies.

I understand the desire to better himself - and I worry that he may not have realised his fullest potential with Palace - but the window of opportunity is rapidly narrowing.

There's a point where it makes more sense to knuckle down with Palace and commit fully, because that's when he plays his best football and looks happiest.

Perhaps selfish and one-eyed as a fan, but that's my view.

[BillyTKid]

Inter Milan and champions league sounds glamorous but would that be a good lifestyle decision? Away from family and plenty of horrible racism from the stands.

[Lprkorngod]

Fairly sure the article linked on twitter referred to AC Milan scouts, not Inter FWIW

[Oli28]

Originally Posted by Dave Hedgehog

Have said this on here a few times...

I sincerely hope somebody at the club is telling Wilf that he is already 'home', and that he's got something special with Palace which other players spend their entire careers looking for.

More than that, he can serve the community here and is already building a long-lasting legacy. He values the respect generated by his commitment to people and charity.

There is potentially so much more value for him personally and professionally by staying at the club and supporting its continued growth, compared to wandering away to play what could be a handful of European games, with no guarantees about trophies.

I understand the desire to better himself - and I worry that he may not have realised his fullest potential with Palace - but the window of opportunity is rapidly narrowing.

There's a point where it makes more sense to knuckle down with Palace and commit fully, because that's when he plays his best football and looks happiest.

Perhaps selfish and one-eyed as a fan, but that's my view.

He did an interview on a podcast recently where someone put this to him and Wilf didn't seem particularly persuaded to stay here just for the sake of his 'legacy'. From what I've heard from him recently, he seems very very keen to move on.

If anyone offers a decent fee (£40m+) then I think we should take it but I can't imagine that they will.

[Big Blue Eagle]

Originally Posted by Lprkorngod

Fairly sure the article linked on twitter referred to AC Milan scouts, not Inter FWIW

Correct & corrected

[Dingle]

The whole Wilf saga is the last thing the club needs now. We are approaching one of the most important transfer windows in the club's history with the management team needing replacing along with half the squad. This transfer saga has the potential to hang over the club like a dark cloud for the entire window, potentially impeding our ability to do the business we actually need to do. For this reason I feel we surely need to come to an agreement with Wilf early on in the window, either with him committing to stay (obviously every Palace fans' preference,) or our commitment to sell.

I can't say i blame him for wanting to leave. you only have to look at Hodgeon's negative tactics or the complete lack of any ambition in the transfer market from the club to understand his frustrations. When you compare Palace with Aston Villa who have made some top signings to complement their generational talent, these days Wilf at Palace cuts a forlorn figure on the pitch most of the time. I can only hope the club is really prepared to spend this window to bring in some top players, along with appointing a more progressive manager as I feel that will be the only way we can convince Wilf to end his career at Palace, the club he belongs at.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Oli28

He did an interview on a podcast recently where someone put this to him and Wilf didn't seem particularly persuaded to stay here just for the sake of his 'legacy'. From what I've heard from him recently, he seems very very keen to move on.

If anyone offers a decent fee (£40m+) then I think we should take it but I can't imagine that they will.

Have heard the same.

Latter point is my concern really, for him personally / professionally - the much-vaunted big move doesn't materialise, he stews in it, and loses some of the best years of his career.

Agree that we should/would take £40m+ at this stage but it starts to become increasingly unlikely. You can find younger, cheaper alternatives without Wilf's baggage. And let's be honest, he does come with baggage which many clubs will not fancy.

Somebody said above about it becoming a dark cloud over the club. I think it already has been for a couple of years now.

[Oli28]

Originally Posted by Dave Hedgehog

Have heard the same.

Latter point is my concern really, for him personally / professionally - the much-vaunted big move doesn't materialise, he stews in it, and loses some of the best years of his career.

Agree that we should/would take £40m+ at this stage but it starts to become increasingly unlikely. You can find younger, cheaper alternatives without Wilf's baggage. And let's be honest, he does come with baggage which many clubs will not fancy.

Somebody said above about it becoming a dark cloud over the club. I think it already has been for a couple of years now.

I guess its not out of the question that we would get a decent fee for him still. Even if he's not got the pace he used to have and isn't as dangerous when running at defenders, he has still been a 1-in-2 striker for us this season which is very impressive given how few chances we created. If he can add a few more goals before the end of the season then I could imagine a fairly big offer coming in but other clubs wouldn't be bidding for the same type of player that they would have been 2 or 3 years ago.

[CP-RJW]

Wilf starts for Milan, no debate. They only have one real top quality wide man, in Ante Rebic. I’m confident in stating that Wilf is a much better player than Samuel Castillejo, who starts on the other side.

As always though, there’s probably better value to be had at teams who aren’t based in the Prem (and therefore aren’t as rich), who aren’t fully reliant on their wide player in question, and particularly if that wide player is much younger. What Dave Hedgehog said more eloquently than me above, basically.