Thanks for that!

According to the BBS Sakho is injured and in Dubai partying sorry I mean warm weather rehabilitation. If that is the case I guess we are stuck with him until the summer.

One more point

Currently at the start of next season our only recognised striker will be Ayew.

It's good to know we can sign Mateta if he looks good enough and £17m is about average for a premier league striker.

I'd also hope Benteke resigns. His wages cost £5m per year, we won't be able to go to the market and get someone for less than that.

With Mateta, Ayew, Benteke, and Batshuyai for the next six months, we might be able to switch Zaha to the right wing and take the pressure off Townsend.

Our next biggest position to find is a long term replacement for McArthur who's now 33. Some might describe this as a long term replacement to Cabaye. Someone's got to leave to free up space, that will probably be McCarthy who Celtic are interested in. The problem is, it will probably cost £20m for the right player.

On top of that we need one eye open for a centre back and a right winger in the Summer. Which will be another £40m.

The club simply isn't generating that kind of money.

I think this is part of our striker problems over last few years.

We have gone through a lot of strikers over last few years but they have either failed completely or had a hot streak and then become less prolific.
If we have a target man striker and he is to do well we need to provide him with crosses. This is not how we currently play. We used to and this was when Benteke looked a danger.

You can speculate why we made this change was it the manager or chairman who made this descision. Our chairman is sometimes very close to the players and I would speculate does not allow managers to manage (hence at least 2 walked).

I may be wrong but I think when Wilf signed his current contract he agreed with SP he was to be played as a striker. This unbalances team both in attack and in defence. In my view playing him in this more central role is one of the reasons Benteke has been so poor. I would like to see us revert to a more counter attacking style and allow us to have 3 central midfield players which would give us more defensive stability particularly if one of the 3 would play like Cabaye used to and turn defence into attack

Edited by Palace in the Blood (22 Jan 2021 3.33pm)

Nonsense, he signed that contract 2 and a half years ago, and until this season played on the left wing.

Talking of Wilf, this summer he will be down to 2 years left on his contract.

My equalibrium unbalanced me. Paul Draper Brighton 19/2/2018

Agreed. End of the season is probably the best value we could possibly get given age and contract expiry. A deal with PSG I think would be ideal for all parties for example :
1) they're not too short a bob or two, so can meet an asking price £50m upwards
2) deal could also be performance related e.g. Winning ligue 1 and champions league, some extra money comes our way
3) going abroad means Palace will unlikely have to face him in a game
4) Zaha would go to a "winning" team who regularly features in champions league
5) Paris is also close enough for Zaha to nip back and forth between London regularly
6) Pochettino is a big admirer of Zaha
7) di Maria contract expires in the summer and with Zaha being 4/5 years younger, could be seen as ideal replacement