da doce： According to The Daily Mail, Crystal Palace are monitoring Allan Saint-Maximin’s situation at Newcastle.
What’s the story?
da mrbet： The 22-year-old was not in the Toon’s squad for their goalless draw with Burnley on Saturday, with manager Steve Bruce saying that he was struggling with a hamstring injury.
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However, The Mail’s sources say that he is fully fit and available for selection, even with Bruce saying that he is a doubt for the Magpies’ FA Cup tie with West Bromwich Albion. As such, the report adds that both Palace and Wolves are monitoring the ongoing situation.
Perfect Zaha replacement
It seems that Wilfried Zaha is persistently linked with a move away from Selhurst Park. The 27-year-old was the subject of intense interest from Arsenal last summer, and it was even said at one point during the previous transfer window that his agent was trying to broker a move to Tottenham.
For now, he remains with the Eagles, but it seems unlikely that Roy Hodgson and co will be able to keep him at the club for too much longer. In the summer, interest in his services could very well resume – at some point, something has to give.
The former Manchester United man has been a key member of the London outfit’s team over the years – he has 26 goals and 26 assists across the last three full campaigns in the Premier League – meaning that an adequate replacement would be needed to replace him should he depart. There are few attainable players who could take his place in the English top flight, but Saint-Maximin is one of them.
In his first season in England, the former Nice winger has one goal and one assist in 14 starts in the league. Not the best return, but there have been plenty of positives from his play. He is one of the most adept dribblers in the division – only Zaha (4.6) and Adama Traore (5.2) have completed more than his 4.3 per match.
His stats are close to the mirror image of Zaha as well – they have both completed 63% of their dribbles, whilst the Frenchman has prevailed in 52% of his duels compared to 49%, and Saint-Maximin has averaged slightly more key passes and shots per game than the Palace star.
Whilst no transfer fee has been mentioned as part of the report, his Transfermarkt market value of £22.5m would surely be covered by any potential Zaha departure – he himself is valued at £49.5m.
Palace could do an awful lot worse than signing Saint-Maximin as Zaha’s replacement, but it remains to be seen whether the situation in the north-east can be resolved.
Meanwhile, Dougie Freedman should avoid making a move for this £20m reported target.