Premier League outfit Crystal Palace offered £11m for Ollie Watkins but he has stayed in the Championship with Thomas Frank’s Brentford.
Goals are still in short supply for Crystal Palace but no one can blame the wingers.
Wilfried Zaha is one of the Premier League’s most influential attacking talents while Andros Townsend remains a reliable source of creativity on the opposite flank. Just imagine how many assists Zaha and Townsend would rack up if they didn’t have Christian Benteke spooning their devilish deliveries over the crossbar.
It is no secret that Palace are a top class centre-forward away from pushing for the top half of the Premier League table and, despite successive goals from the much-maligned Jordan Ayew, a lack of star quality through the middle continues to hamper their potential.
So if Ollie Watkins was on Palace’s radar before, he should be even more tempting now.
The Eagles have been linked with the fleet-footed Brentford forward for the best part of a year now and The Mail claimed in August that they had launched an £11 million bid for his services – an offer The Bees turned down.
Watkins was a winger then but, just a month later, he has blossomed into a ruthless centre-forward with Brentford forced to think outside the box to replace top scorer Neal Maupay.
The former Exeter City starlet has taken to his new role like a duck to water, scoring four goals in six Championship starts including a clinical double on Saturday’s 3-0 thrashing of Derby County. But it’s not just the finishing that has caught the eye.
Watkins has impressed with his ability to hold up the ball and link play with his back to goal too. If you weren’t aware of the 23-year-old before this season, you’d be forgiven for thinking he had spent his entire career leading the line. As Brentford boss Thomas Frank told the Richmond and Twickenhem Times; “he has that striker instinct in him.”
It is early days of course but, on this evidence, Watkins is looking more and more like a no-brainer for Crystal Palace.
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