Dan Cook has admitted on the HLTCO podcast about how he’d be happy to see Crystal Palace sign Antoine Semenyo in January or next summer.
It was a very quiet end to the summer transfer window for Palace as they got a lot of their business done early on, allowing Patrick Vieira to gel his squad together and let them understand his tactics and system.
However, they already appear to be thinking ahead to the upcoming January and summer transfer windows, with reports claiming Dougie Freedman was in attendance at Bristol City last week to watch Semenyo – someone they were credited with an interest in over the summer.
Cook has claimed that he would be very happy indeed if Palace brought in Semenyo in the near future.
He said: “If you look into Antoine Semenyo’s skill set and exactly what he would bring to the team, he’s a striker that can run the channels, he’s very, very adept with a ball at his feet, he’s got strength, he’s obviously someone that is hugely driven to succeed and I think he certainly fits the Palace model pretty well under Patrick Vieira.
Would Semenyo improve Palace?
Yes!
No!
“So I would be very, very happy to see us making a move for him come the January window or even waiting until the summer if needs be.”
TIF Thoughts on Palace’s interest in Semenyo…
The Ghanaian striker is now in the early stages of his third season in the Championship as a regular player and now has 91 appearances under his belt in England’s second tier, so after another half-season at least, he could be ready to make the step up.
Palace do indeed have a good track record of picking up top talents from the Championship and integrating them into their side, with the likes of Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise managing to establish themselves as solid options in the top flight.
While Cook says he’d be willing to wait until the summer for Semenyo, if he tears up the Championship, they may struggle to fend off competition from other clubs who take an advanced interest in the attacker, so January could well be the best time for the Eagles to make their move.