February 21 2024

Eberechi Eze

Can the Eagles keep hold of midfield star Eberechi Eze come the summer, writes Ruby Law.

A number of clubs, and fans themselves in the wider world of football, were watching Queens Park Rangers youngster Eberechi Eze quite closely a few years ago as he begun really showing his potential and tearing up the Championship in his spell at Loftus Road.

In the 2020 summer transfer window it became obvious that he would be moving on, and the simple question for QPR fans was 'how much' and 'to who' as there were certainly plenty of clubs circling.

As history shows, ultimately Crystal Palace won out in that race and they secured his future to Selhurst Park for a reported to be in the region of £19.5 million and although that was basically his stated valuation at the point, few on The Punters Page would have expected many clubs to match it given how raw he was at the time, but that undoubtedly helped Palace to win the race for his signature as they were open to showing that faith in him.

The now 25 year old has definitely made an impression in the top flight and the Premier League, and he has also gained himself a bit of England international recognition with head coach Gareth Southgate bringing him into the camp on a couple of occasions, but if the transfer rumour mill is now to be believed, he could well be on the move again.

With us now motoring through the second half of the 2023/24 campaign, and reports are beginning to emerge suggesting that both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City are now very interested in seeing how open we are to doing a deal come the summer and the end of the season.

It has been another good year for him, despite the more up and down season that Palace have had on a managerial front, and in 16 appearances he has chipped in with five league goals, and across all competitions he has provided an additional three assists.

It is not a done deal though, as the financials would absolutely need to be right for Palace and Steve Parish to sanction a deal as we do have the two capped player under contract until the summer of 2027.

Spurs gaffer Ange Postecoglou is believed to be keen to add more pace and depth to his attacking options, and on that front Eze understandably ticks a number of good boxes, and would undoubtedly be one of their top targets if the speculation is accurate.

It is also said that Pep Guardiola has had his City scouts tracking the player for a good period of time now, and although it is simply an educated guess at this stage, it would seem highly likely that they would punt their hat into play if it looked like a deal could be arranged.

From our point of view, whilst we would definitely prefer to keep him on our books and benefits from his obvious talents, if a move is likely to take place, and ultimately the player wants out, if City are involved then it should at least mean we can better maximise the return price, that we can again reinvest as we look for further improvement of our own.

Naturally the reports as they stand, suggest that Eze would prefer a move to the Treble winners over a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium based on the greater likelihood of silverware, but that would be a very obvious line to peddle anyway.

Given our rough £20 million outlay, with the length of his contract still in play, it is extremely viable (if open to a deal) to be looking for a return of around at least £40 million as an absolute minimum.

For now though, whilst there are only a few months left in the current season, there is plenty of games left to play and everyone in the Eagles fan base will be looking for us to push further up the top flight table so that new manager Oliver Glasner can better hit the ground running next season.

What will be will be is how the saying goes, we will simply have to see what the next few months have in store for us.