Feargal Brennan and The Athletic’s Sam Lee joined Ant McGinley on a recent edition of the Football Social Daily podcast to discuss the Premier League and one of the topics that came up during this podcast was the transfer interest in Crystal Palace attacker Wilfried Zaha and why it “dropped away” last summer.
Last summer, Crystal Palace’s chairman Steve Parish declared that he “wouldn’t want to be the person who stopped” Zaha from playing for “a top club” if they met Palace’s valuation of the Ivory Coast international, as per the Daily Mail. Both Everton and Arsenal were linked with Zaha last summer and despite the player indicating his desire to leave by handing in a transfer request at the time, he remains at Selhurst Park.
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Brennan shared his thoughts on why some clubs’ interest in securing Zaha’s signature “dropped away” last summer, during his recent appearance on the Football Social Daily podcast.
Brennan said: “When you’re playing for a team that’s 10th to 15th, everyone does talk about you when you pull in a big performance against a top-four side or top-six side, particularly away from home.
“But, ultimately, in the eyes of the wider Premier League – when your level drops, it’s not as noticed.
“That’s why Zaha, ultimately, I think, a lot of so-called ‘bigger club interest’ eventually dropped away last summer because they looked at his performances for Palace and went, ‘You’re not really a big fish in a small pond, you’re a slightly bigger, medium-sized fish and we need big fish here.’
“But then [Everton] threw that policy in the bin and signed Alex Iwobi.”
Do you think that Crystal Palace overvalue Wilfried Zaha?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
Judging by his comments on the Football Social Daily podcast, it appears as though Brennan believes that interest from ‘bigger’ clubs dropped off in Zaha last summer because they weren’t convinced that he is a top-tier player and this may explain why clubs didn’t ultimately choose to meet Palace’s asking price for the attacker which, as Palace’s chairman Parish explained, was the only thing that stood between Zaha and his move away from the club.