Wilfried Zaha: The curious case of his illusive big move

Crystal Palace have put an outrageous price tag on their best player time and again, which have forced other clubs to stop pursuing him.

Wilfried Zaha has fallen victim to the despair of dependency at Crystal Palace since he moved to Selhurst Park in 2015, acting as their beacon of light in the attack. The Crystal Palace youth academy graduate completed a ‘dream move’ to Manchester United in 2013, only for Sir Alex Ferguson’s untimely retirement to disrupt a glowing career at Old Trafford.

However, Wilfried Zaha has since shown a lot of fight in himself to rise above the odds at Palace. After being labelled a ‘flop’ by many following his disappointments at United – for whom he only made two league appearances – Palace were the side to dust off his cobwebs and resurrect his career. The boyhood Palace fan has also repaid their faith in kind, being a vocal force and primary reason for Roy Hodgson’s side being able to avoid relegation for all these years.

But he’s also been burdened with having to bail the Eagles out of trouble time and again. As a result, club owner Steve Parish has found a special liking for his talents. Of course when a glowing talent from a mid-table side begins to rise up, they are often met with interest from the big guns.

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Wilfried Zaha has displayed to have everything a modern, successful winger needs to. He’s fast, can dribble past defenders at ease and has lethal directness to run at the defenders which not many others do in the Premier League. Due to his sweet skills and trickery, Zaha has topped dribbling charts and been constantly among the most-fouled players in the league for the past couple of seasons.

However, the bane for the Crystal Palace forward has been his club, who haven’t completely helped him when it comes to cooperating with interest for their best player. In fact, they’ve been snobbish, unrealistic with their demands and negative about the entire process – waving off interest for the past couple of summer transfer windows.

Arsenal emerged as his biggest admirer last season, showing a lot of intent on making him their priority signing for the summer. In fact, the Gunners even reportedly made a £40m bid to sign him, something that was swiftly rejected.

Palace made it clear that they would only sell the winger if a club was to meet their demands of paying up £100m for his services last summer. That itself made Arsenal back out of pursuits, as they opted on signing Nicolas Pepe instead. The Ivory Coast international was left extremely frustrated by this as he pushed hard on an exit but couldn’t cross that moral line due to his affection with the club he’s associated with for more than 15 years.

It was also seen as a very bitter move from Palace, who refused to approve the wishes of the player who had served so well to help them avoid relegation from the Premier League. But Steve Parish’s strange decision put an end to his transfer saga in the summer of 2019, waving off a number of clubs’ wishes to sign him.

Even after having his heart broken, Wilfried Zaha continued to lead from the front for Palace in the 2019-20 season. He was involved in nine league goals (four goals, five assists) for a side which scored the second-lowest goals (31) in the entire season – behind 20th placed Norwich City. Despite their clear attacking issues, the winger effectively won them enough points to be saved from relegation once again.

With no forward steps being taken in the Palace team, the Ivorian can really push for an exit in the summer of 2020. He has done everything humanly possible for his current side and would not want to waste his prime years struggling at a mid-table side. The 27-year-old could evolve into among Europe’s most potent wingers in the right team, but it doesn’t seem like his side are ready to let him go.

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The Eagles are reportedly going to place another huge £70m asking price for Zaha, which is doubtful to be paid by any club in the transfer market, especially in the midst of a pandemic. They’ve effectively pricing him out of an exit and robbing the winger of being a hugely successful player somewhere else.

In another world, the Ivorian could take extreme steps to force his way out of this difficult predicament. He might skip training sessions, refuse to play for his club and even voice dismay in public to pile pressure on Parish to sell - something which has been seen in Premier League in the recent past. Knowing how dramatic his transfer saga’s have been, nothing can be held as ‘unexpected’ when it comes to this deal.

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