Michy Batshuayi scored five Premier League goals during a loan spell at Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace but will Frank Lampard let him return to Selhurst Park?
Crystal Palace are set to ‘step up’ their attempts to bring Michy Batshuayi back to Selhurst Park from Chelsea after last season’s impressive loan spell, according to the Times.
Frank Lampard’s return to Stamford Bridge as the club’s new manager appears to have handed a number of forgotten and fringe Chelsea stars a fresh start. Academy graduates Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Reece James are among those who are expected to have a substantial role in this exciting new era in West London.
But there’s been very little said about Batshuayi.
A £33 million signing from Marseille three years ago (The Guardian), the Belgian international has a superb goals-per-minute ratio and even scored the decisive strike in the 2017 Premier League title race. But that has not stopped him from being farmed out on loan to Borussia Dortmund, Valencia and, in January of this year, Crystal Palace.
And after he scored six goals in 13 games for Roy Hodgson’s side, providing the kind of poacher’s instinct and clinical finishing that they were simply crying out for, The Times report that Palace would love to bring him back.
Another of last season’s loanees, Jordan Ayew, is returning from Swansea City for £2.5 million. But neither he, Christian Benteke nor Alexander Sorloth or Conor Wickham, is a natural-born goalscorer like Batshuayi.
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