Crystal Palace had hoped to bring Andre Schurrle back to the Premier League from Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund in January.
Crystal Palace’s dreadful record without Wilfried Zaha is well established.
They have lost all of the last seven Premier League games in which their talismanic winger has not featured and, with the Ivorian international out for a month with a knee injury, Palace’s hopes of pulling clear of the relegation zone have been handed an almighty blow.
So Roy Hodgson should be tearing his hair out with Andre Schurrle getting back to his best over in the Bundesliga. As reported by the Sun (page 63, February 11), Palace had hoped to sign the German international from Borussia Dortmund during the January transfer window, only for BVB to pull out of a deal last-minute after Ukrainian winger Andriy Yarmolenko suffered a badly-timed injury.
And while Palace were toiling in Zaha’s absence, going down 3-1 to Everton at Goodison Park, Schurrle was continuing his post-January resurgence in style.
He scored a stunning winner away at Cologne a week ago and followed that up with a beautiful assist for Mario Gotze’s second-half clincher in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Hamburg at the Signal Iduna Park.
Schurrle, who had struggled badly at Dortmund following his club-record £27 million move from Wolfsburg in 2016, is now in his best form for the black and yellows.
Whether the former Chelsea winger would have been able to step up to replace Zaha at Palace is a matter of debate. But, if the Eagles had lured Schurrle to Selhurst Park on transfer deadline day, Zaha’s absence perhaps would not be so keenly felt.
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