Crystal Palace could solve their goal-scoring woes by signing Inter Milan’s Serie A flop ‘Gabigol’.
The reaction to shock links with Gabriel Barbosa says it all about the mood at Crystal Palace right now.
According to UOL, Palace have made contact with the representatives of the Samba starlet, who is shining on loan at Santos from Inter Milan.
But it seems that the Selhurst Park faithful neither believe that chairman Steve Parish will splash out the required fee for a player Inter paid £29.5 million for – or that under-fire manager Roy Hodgson will use him correctly.
And while Gabriel has scored 23 goals in 45 games for Santos this season, doubts too should remain about whether he is the right man to give Crystal Palace a much-needed cutting edge.
The 22-year-old struggled badly during his time in Europe, failing to start a single Serie A game and scoring just one goal after that massive move to Inter, while playing just 13 minutes of league football during five months on loan at Benfica.
He has even lost his ‘Gabigol’ nickname – it seemed a little sarcastic when the one-time Brazilian wonderkid was toiling so horribly.
Time will tell whether Gabriel does arrive at Selhurst Park. But it will take more than his arrival to bring a sense of positivity back to the Crystal Palace fan-base.
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