According to The Athletic, Crystal Palace centre-back Mamadou Sakho would like a return to France, amid interest in the defender from Lyon.
Following his £25.38m move from Liverpool back in 2017, the 30-year-old defender has gone on to make 64 appearances for the Eagles, scoring one goal and providing two assists.
However, so far this season, Sakho has often been unavailable for selection, be it down to injuries or suspension, featuring just nine times in the Premier League thus far in the 2019/20 campaign.
Despite this lack of game time, recent reports have claimed that French side Lyon are interested in the defender, even suggesting that the club have already held talks with the player’s entourage regarding contract proposals.
However, The Athletic has stated that Palace are willing to put up a fight for the defender, claiming that it will take ‘considerably more than €5m (£4.5m)’ for Lyon to be successful with a bid, although, the report goes on to suggest that ‘Sakho is understood to favour a return’ back to France, as well as the fact that Palace ‘are not believed to be averse to being relieved of his sizeable wage packet’, which is reportedly over £100k per week.
TIF Thoughts…
While it would certainly appear unlikely that Palace will be able to recoup anywhere near the amount of money they paid Liverpool for Sakho three years ago, we are of the belief that selling the player for somewhere around his current valuation of £8.55m would not be the worst business in the world.
Would you like to see the club sell Sakho this summer?
Yes
No
This may allow the Eagles a considerable amount of money in their wage budget to spend on other areas of their squad, as well as opening the door to some potential new signings. And, considering the little time that Sakho has spent on the pitch this season, selling the defender could almost be considered a win-win for the club.