Crystal Palace podcaster Dan Cook has offered his thoughts on the club’s centre-back position following news surrounding Gary Cahill.
It was reported yesterday that the 35-year-old has turned down the offer of a new contract at the club, with his current wage demands supposedly too high for the club as they continue their rebuild following a lot of changes both on the pitch and in the dugout.
Speaking about the situation on the HLTCO Podcast, Cook claimed that the club were already in the process of looking for a defender to replace the former England international, but that the club could possibly have fought harder to try and keep him if there wasn’t someone waiting in the wings:
“It was one of those situations where if we had no other options, if we were hard-pressed in terms of finding another centre-back that could occupy a place in our first team, then we would have had no choice but to do it.
“I’m led to believe that won’t be the case and we will look to bring in a different centre-back that is younger, on less money and has resale value further down the line instead of Gary Cahill, and I’m certainly happy for us to pursue that entire strategy.”
TIF Thoughts on Dan Cook’s comments about Gary Cahill and Crystal Palace…
Will Patrick Vieira still be Crystal Palace's manager at the end of the season?
Yes
No
If Cook’s claim is proven true, it would certainly underline the bold and exciting strategy being carried out by Patrick Vieira as he gets to grips with the task of assembling his squad at Palace.
It does make sense to take on this approach given the rebuild that the club are going through, and although the club could miss out on Cahill’s noted leadership skills, given his declining playing ability – best demonstrated by his decreasing number of minutes over the past two years – this was always going to be the right time to let him go.
And if Palace can bring in someone younger that can make an immediate impact on the squad, then it’s certainly an avenue worth exploring. Although resale value shouldn’t necessarily be the key point in all of that, so long as the club can get enough years of production out of Cahill’s heir and they stay in the Premier League, then they will have more than likely paid off whatever transfer fee they lay out on a replacement.
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