Former Premier League midfielder Carlton Palmer has told Football FanCast in an exclusive interview that Wilfried Zaha’s situation at Crystal Palace will not affect the club’s manager search.
Goal recently reported that Zaha is attracting strong interest from Everton and Tottenham as the 28-year-old winger considers his future.
Zaha once again proved to be Palace’s talisman this season, scoring 11 goals in the Premier League campaign that has just gone.
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Losing a player of his quality will no doubt make the Eagles a much weaker side, and replacing him will probably be no easy task. Still, Palmer does not believe that will detract managers from the Palace job.
When asked by FFC if losing Zaha makes the vacancy for the Selhurst Park dugout less attractive, the ex-Leeds United star said:
“No, not really. You’ve got to expect at a club like Crystal Palace, no disrespect to them, you’re going to produce players like Wilfried Zaha… you know that the player is not going to stay.
“They must have had discussions with Wilfried time and time again about, ‘Stay for this time and we’ll allow you to go then at that time.’ ”
Even if Zaha does end up staying in south London this summer, Roy Hodgson’s successor still has a momentous rebuild job on his hands.
Palace have 15 players who will soon be out of contract, while striker Michy Batshuayi is also set to return to parent club Chelsea.