Dan Cook has been speaking on the HLTCO podcast about what the future holds at Crystal Palace for Jean-Philippe Mateta.
The French striker was signed last January on loan from Mainz, but he’s never been able to establish himself as a regular in the first team or even be deemed good enough for the bench sometimes under both Roy Hodgson and Patrick Vieira.
Will Palace finish in the top half?
Yes!
No!
Over the summer, Palace brought in Odsonne Edouard, so that will have pushed Mateta further down the pecking order, and The Sun reported early in November that the striker had been told he could leave in January because he is clearly not in Vieira’s plans.
Cook fully expects the striker to leave in January and thus freeing up a loan spot for Palace to utilise.
“Jean-Philippe Mateta is currently on loan at Crystal Palace, although of all the noises coming out of both German and English press suggests that he will be returning to Mainz early from that loan spell because he’s not in Patrick Vieira’s plans and hasn’t done enough to impress the Frenchman in training.
“He’s not really even featured in the Under-23s or on the bench in recent times, so it’s quite clear that his days in south London are numbered and that in itself would free up another loan space.”
TIF Thoughts on Mateta…
There’s very little surprise as to why Palace are reportedly willing to send Mateta back to the Bundesliga as he’s only ever scored one league goal – albeit an important one against rivals Brighton, however, apart from that, he has done nothing on the pitch to impress the fans, Hodgson or Vieira.
Since the opening day of the season, Mateta has been handed just four minutes in the Premier League, and even more alarmingly, he’s been left out of the matchday squad on six occasions, highlighting he may not have the quality required to operate in this Palace side.
In other news: ‘A headache for Patrick Vieira’ – Dan Cook drops ‘major’ concern for CPFC