October 14 2004

FA Premiership

Former France and Chelsea captain Marcel Desially turned down an offer from Crystal Palace in order to take a massive pay day in Qatar, by Stuart Pink.

Palace boss IAIN DOWIE admitted this week that he had spoken to the World Cup winner about a possible move to Selhurst Park, but after a friendly chat with the French defender the Palace manager revealed money was certainly an issue.

DOWIE said: "We had a conversation with Marcel, there’s no question about that we did. We had a very positive conversation with him, we hoped to attract him as an experienced pro with a young side, but he declined our offer politely.

"We were a little bit short on the money judging by his move to Qatar!"

Desially claimed this week he received offers from Portsmouth and Celtic, as well as Palace, and was strongly tipped to join Barcelona to aid their defensive crisis, but instead opted to join the many other 90s legends plying their trade in the super-rich Qatar league.

According to DOWIE one of the attractions of Desially was that he could play in the holding midfield role, which could have seen the former AC Milan man deploy the position he was once regarded as the best in the world when he starred and scored in AC Milan’s 4-0 drubbing of Barcelona in the 1994 European Cup final.

But DOWIE did receive some good news this week with the return to training of frontman Nicola Ventola and defender Darren Powell after their respective knee and cheekbone injuries, and was further boosted with defender Danny Butterfield’s return to reserve team action.

The young defender has so far not featured this term and DOWIE admitted Butterfield’s return will give him further options at he back.

DOWIE said: "Danny Buttefield will always give you a selection headache, but Boyce’s the man in possession.

"But he’s a quality player Danny and he’s done exceptional in training. He’s a great character, certainly got Premiership quality, is a great passer and he’ll be a big boost for us."

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