The biggest decision of Crystal Palace’s summer will be setting Wilfried Zaha’s price – it’s vital they consider the past.
Wilfried Zaha is set to be one of the most in-demand players in the Premier League this summer, with five of the top six reported to be keeping tabs on him.
It says a lot for his form this season that he’s got such high profile suitors in spite of his relative failure of a spell at Manchester United.
That reputation has been earned, though, as Zaha helped power Palace’s resurgence under Roy Hodgson.
But that is exactly why Palace need to think very, very hard about how much their star is worth to them – especially when you consider the rest of the league.
West Brom aside, three of the bottom four this season have all got one thing in common: they’ve all sold their star.
Swansea let Gylfi Sigurdsson move to Everton for what was considered a fantastic fee, Stoke City let Marko Arnautovic leave for a West Ham who he has subsequently saved from relegation, and Southampton belatedly let Virgil van Dijk become the latest in a long line of their players to join Liverpool.
Everton, too, had to call upon the unwanted services of Sam Allardyce to turnaround their season after selling Romelu Lukaku to Man United – again for an astronomical fee.
All of these teams found themselves worse off despite the money and two of them have ended up paying a far greater price than what they received for their star after being unable to replace them.
Palace have to think very carefully this summer – it’s easy for that money to disappear fast.
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