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Palace reject Everton Zaha bid

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Everton have had a bid totalling £55m (£52m plus add-ons) turned down for Crystal Palace attacker Wilfried Zaha, according to the Sun. 

Everton have also been told that there’s no point submitting a second bid for the 26-year-old, with Palace chairman Steve Parish saying he expects Zaha to be with them at the start of next season.

That will be a blow to Zaha who had wanted a move away from Palace this summer. His first choice was a move to Arsenal but Palace rejected an initial £40m bid from their London rivals.

Arsenal have since been strongly linked with a club-record £72m move for Lille winger Nicolas Pepe [Telegraph].

Palace have no imperative to sell Zaha after banking £50m for Aaron Wan-Biassaka, who moved to Man United earlier in the summer.

TiF Tactics

Zaha deserves a move to a big Premier League club. His dream move to Arsenal looks unlikely now but he is said to be open to a move to Everton.

The winger could make a real impact in Marco Silva’s side, with Theo Walcott failing to deliver what was expected on the right flank after his move from Arsenal.

Zaha made the most dribbles per game in the Premier League last season [WhoScored.com] and the second-most successful after Eden Hazard.

According to WyScout, he made 12.74 dribbles and had 4.24 touches in the box per 90 minutes. He also boasts end product with 0.3 goals per 90 minutes, although he was punching above his weight with an xG of just 0.18.

Likely to happen?

Everton have been told that Zaha isn’t going anywhere but no club has bid the £80m that Palace said they would take for the player earlier this summer.

Everton’s bid of £55m is worth less than Arsenal’s second reported bid of £55m including add-ons and Reiss Nelson [Independent], so it was always likely to be rejected.

If Silva is serious then he needs to get a bid in that hits much closer to Palace’s valuation before it gets too late in the window to get a deal done.

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