Nice’s Ligue 1 winger Allan Saint-Maximin is reportedly a target for Premier League side Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace have been told that they will have to splash out £25 million on Nice winger Allan Saint-Maximin with the Daily Mail claiming that he could be Wilfried Zaha’s eventual replacement at Selhurst Park.
Zaha is expected to leave his boyhood club for the second time this summer and Palace face a huge task in filling the void left by their talisman’s all-but inevitable departure.
But Saint-Maximin looks like a viable option. Like Zaha, the France U21 star is blessed with rapid pace and the skill of a freestyle footballer, even if his end product is not yet up to Zaha’s ever-improving standards.
The Mail adds that Watford are watching Saint-Maximin closely while Newcastle were interested too, though any chances of the 22-year-old moving to St James’ Park seem to have been reduced after the departure of Rafa Benitez, who had almost unprecedented levels of control over transfers in the Mike Ashley era.
So Crystal Palace appear to have overtaken Newcastle into first place in the race for one of French football’s most exciting talents.
And if Zaha does indeed leave this summer, The Eagles could do a lot worse than to invest some of that substantial windfall on player who so closely resembles the Ivory Coast star in his younger days.
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