According to reports, Crystal Palace have offered Wilfried Zaha a bumper pay-rise amid interest from Tottenham Hotspur.
Zaha, 25, signed a five-year, £100,000-a-week deal last summer but Palace are ready to improve his terms again after his sensational displays helped the club to avoid relegation last term.
The new deal on the table is believed to be worth more than £120,000-a-week as the Eagles look to fend off interest from Tottenham, with Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal also having expressed interest in the Ivorian during the course of the last season.
Definitely, Palace are moving in the right direction after focusing on keeping hold of their star. The last time Palace won without him was back in September 2016 and it is enough to justify Zaha’s importance to the south London club.
The forward missed nine league matches last season and Palace lost every single one of them; they managed to score just three goals without Zaha. His injury on last season’s opening day defeat against Huddersfield Town played a crucial role in Frank De Boer’s sacking.
Hodgson replaced De Boer but failed to arrest the club’s problems until Zaha returned from injury and played a starring role in Palace’s first win of the season against Chelsea at Selhurst Park in mid-October.
The 2-1 win over Chelsea marked Palace’s revival under Hodgson, with Zaha leading the charge. Zaha, who has been effective from wide positions, was given a central striker’s role by Hodgson and the 25-year-old grabbed the opportunity with both the hands. Along with Andros Townsend, Zaha ripped apart defences as the Palace fans hardly missed their striker Christian Benteke.
Benteke struggled to find any sort of confidence as he netted just three times last season. Coupled with poor form, the big Belgian also spent time on the sidelines due to a knee injury. In his absence, Zaha took the centre-stage and became the focal point of Palace’s attack, seamlessly slotting as a striker alongside Townsend.
With explosive speed, trickery, agility and dribbling ability, Zaha mightily impressed this past season. The Ivorian’s return from a second injury in March coincided with the Eagles’ best spell of the season when they lost just one of their final eight matches to sensationally finish in the 11th spot.
Over-reliance on Zaha did hurt Palace mightily as the club failed to win any of the games without their star man. In fact, the 25-year-old’s absence from the team resulted in Hodgson’s failure to devise a working system.
Zaha, who scored nine goals and set up five more in 29 Premier League games last season, played a key role in helping Palace maintain their Premier League status. Without him, the Eagles would probably have been relegated to the Championship.
So, Palace desperately should keep hold of their star man as Zaha is more valuable to the club than anything at the moment.