Danny Murphy has reacted to the rumours that Crystal Palace are willing to pay Arsenal transfer target Wilfried Zaha ‘£200k-a-week’ to keep him at the club.
The former midfielder added that he is ‘gobsmacked’ by Crystal Palace’s possible actions because it ‘opens the door’ for the rest of the squad, as he told talkSPORT.
Wilfried Zaha is out-of-contract in the summer and, as of this moment, he is heading for the exit door on a free transfer.
The 30-year-old had a spell at Manchester United as a youngster, just as Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, but it was a case of the player being at the wrong place and at the wrong time, so it was no surprise that it didn’t work.
For several years, Arsenal have expressed interest in Zaha’s services, but nothing has come of it. Well, now that he is set to be a free agent, then Mikel Arteta’s side are, once again, keen to take him on board.
But despite those rumours, Murphy thinks ‘there won’t be many takers as people think’ for Zaha, with Palace doing everything they can to keep their club legend at Selhurst Park.
“I would be gobsmacked if they paid him £200k-a-week,” said Murphy. “It just opens the door, doesn’t it?!
“You don’t pay people for what they have done in the past – in ten years at Palace, and you are right in some seasons he has single-handedly kept them up, but there is only twice in ten years that he has scored more than ten goals. And he won’t have as many takers as people think.
“Somebody else to pay him £200k-a-week. Why is he going to stay then at Palace?”
ZAHA IS READY FOR THE STEP UP IF HE LEAVES CRYSTAL PALACE
The Patrick Vieira stint didn’t work for Palace and he was booted out with the club in all sorts of bother as the crunch moments of the season were coming about, only for the never-ageing, Roy Hodgson, to save them.
But Zaha has a big call to make during these next few weeks. He either pens a new deal, which means that he will spend the rest of his career at his boyhood club.
Or, he decides to take that step up to a team in Europe, which his talents are worthy of, and he aims to take his career up another level as he heads towards the latter stages of his career.
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