Patrick Vieira has told Jean-Philippe Mateta he is free to leave Crystal Palace in the January transfer window with Ligue 1 strugglers St Etienne eyeing the Premier League misfit, as reported by FootMercato.
Well, Saint-Etienne certainly need Mateta more than Crystal Palace do.
The rangy Frenchman has played just 63 minutes of Premier League football since Vieira replaced Roy Hodgson in the Selhurst Park dugout after all.
The Michael Keaton-esque rejuvenation of Christian Benteke, those two brilliantly taken goals against Burnley his Birdman moment, coupled with Odsonne Edouard’s arrival from Celtic means Mateta is now the club’s third-choice centre-forward.
Over in France, meanwhile, the Saints are dancing with the devil.
Three defeats in a row, culminating in Sunday’s 5-0 thumping at home to Rennes, cost Claude Puel his job and left Saint-Etienne rock bottom in the Ligue 1 table.
The lack of a prolific goalscorer is hardly the only problem facing Les Verts but it is a problem nonetheless.
17 goals in 17 games; talk about toothless.
Has Mateta played his last game for Crystal Palace?
According to FootMercato, Saint-Etienne have identified Mateta as the solution to their striker problem.
A short-term loan deal is on the cards and Crystal Palace are unlikely to stand in Mateta’s way, especially after Vieira made it clear that the 24-year-old is no longer part of his plans.
The former France U21 international, who previously represented Saint-Etienne’s Rhone rivals Lyon, only joined Palace on loan from Bundesliga outfit Mainz 11 months ago.
Palace are obliged to fork out around £13 million to make his deal permanent once Mateta makes his 15th Premier League start (Sky Sports).
That tally currently stands at a measly three, however, and is unlikely to increase before the turn of the year.
“If the situation doesn’t improve at all by winter, we might have to talk to Crystal Palace about whether there are other options,” Mainz’s head of sport Christian Heidel said back in September.
That glorious backheel against bitter rivals Brighton in February, it seems, was little more than a false dawn for Mateta at Crystal Palace.
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