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I’m not relying on anything journos say after the whole farce with reported bids being placed when they hadn’t. We only offered around £50m for Zaha and then walked away when it was rejected. All the cash plus players bids after that were complete bs made up
Why would you put Iwobi in Siggurdsons position.
Cant agree...he's a wide forward.
Still early days abs they got their usual once a season victory at a top club alread in the bag. They will struggle imo.
No he won't
For me,the time and only time to get him was when we did,I doubt he will go in Jan ,and there will be surely more teams wanting him in the summer meaning even if we still did want him,that it would be harder,plus papers have there story set for the summer saying we still want him [Even for Jan] etc
www.thetimes.co.uk
Bitter taste for Wilfried Zaha from the dream transfer that never was
It was one of the transfer sagas of the summer, causing understandable alarm among Crystal Palace supporters. Wilfried Zaha, who joined the club aged 12 and has done more than any other player to keep the club in English football’s top division for the longest spell in their history, was determined
Bitter taste for Wilfried Zaha from the dream transfer that never was
Matt Lawton looks at how the breakdown in relationship between the Palace star and his agent unfolded
Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent
September 12 2019, 12:01am, The Times
Zaha had been an Arsenal target after tormenting them in April .
It was one of the transfer sagas of the summer, causing understandable alarm among Crystal Palace supporters.
Wilfried Zaha, who joined the club aged 12 and has done more than any other player to keep the club in English football’s top division for the longest spell in their history, was determined to force a transfer to one of the Premier League’s “big six”.
The same fans had already seen Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Palace’s other outstanding recent youth graduate, join Manchester United for £50 million. Now they feared Zaha, a winger so gifted that Graeme Souness has said he should be playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona, would inevitably be heading to Arsenal or even, as the saga unfolded, Everton.
At 26, Zaha appears to be in his prime and he began the summer as Arsenal head coach Unai Emery’s main transfer target.
Guiding Zaha’s career, but firmly in the background, has been a 38-year-old former golf club professional who has taken the world of football agents by storm. Will Salthouse has become a prominent figure in the English game, with his agency Unique Sports Management (USM) representing some of the biggest names in the Premier League; among them England captain Harry Kane.
And part of the success Salthouse has enjoyed has been built on the strong relationship not only with his clients but with senior executives at football clubs. He has a strong bond with West Ham United’s co-chairman David Sullivan, their relationship enhanced by USM’s generous shirt sponsorship of the women’s team at West Ham that is run by Sullivan’s son, Jack.
Good relations also exist with Cardiff City, helped no doubt by the fact that James Warnock — the son of Cardiff manager Neil — is an agent with USM.
But perhaps Salthouse’s most important contact is Steve Parish, the Palace chairman and someone whom he has encountered in various transfer deals in and out of Selhurst Park.
According to Companies House documents, the two have been shareholders in a business called Dirty Bird Restaurants along with a number of current and former players.
The relationships between Salthouse, Parish and Zaha were at the heart of the summer saga, especially as Zaha felt Parish should acknowledge it was time for him to be allowed to move on, given his contribution to the club’s recent history. To add another dimension, Zaha’s brother Serge has worked for USM. In the eyes of Palace supporters, Parish’s success in keeping a player who agreed a new £130,000-a-week contract in 2018 is a chairman doing a fine job for his club.
Ultimately, both Parish and Salthouse would no doubt argue that the reason for the collapse of the deal was the failure by Arsenal and Everton to make acceptable offers.
It was in April that Zaha gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which he said he wanted to play for a club in the Champions League. And one imagines confirmation by the end of June that Wan-Bissaka would be joining United in a deal brokered by USM only convinced Zaha that he too needed a move.
Arsenal appeared the only top-six club seriously interested in Zaha as the summer unfolded, but they reportedly wanted to pay in instalments over a number of years in a deal similar to the one they struck with Lille to sign Nicolas Pépé for a club record £72 million.
Zaha felt Parish, left, should acknowledge it was time for him to be :allowed to move on
It left Everton as the only serious option. Not exactly a Champions League club but still, in Zaha’s eyes at least, a step up. So much so that he finally put in a formal transfer request, only for the bid from Goodison Park — believed to be in the region of £50 million — to be turned down.
When the new season started Roy Hodgson expressed his delight that Zaha remained part of his squad, even if he did then reveal that “his beef is with the chairman and owners of the club because he’s wanted to leave and they haven’t received the offer that they think is sufficient to allow him to leave”.
Parish, meanwhile, said that he would be only too happy to see a player he has watched excel for Palace for the best part of ten years achieve his dream. The chairman said that he hoped Zaha would get the “happy ending” he desires.
But the situation seems far from happy right now. Zaha has moved to terminate his relationship with Salthouse, with the FA informed that there is now a dispute between an agent and one of his stellar clients, and clearly remains most unhappy that he is still at Selhurst Park.
Wilfried Zaha has been involved in 15 Premier League goals since the start of last season (10 goals, 5 assists) — more than any Crystal Palace player
