Wilfred Zaha - Moves to Lyon

[Dave]

A season long loan.

I think it makes sense for everybody. He's fallen out with the Galatasary fan base. He feels like they loved him, then he got injured, he played well on his return, but they had moved on and wanted on another shiny toy. The Galatasary fans simply dont think hes worth the wages and want him goine. This is what most Palace fans expected to happen.

Nobody else in Europe is going to pay close to the wages we're willing to pay. So it makes sense for Galatasary, it makes sense for Zaha to play football regularly and it makes sense for us to bide our time to see if better players are available next summer.

[Dr. Gonzo]

It's weird how both times he's left Palace he keeps finding his way back.

[Stan]

Romano has said deal off. 

[Dan+]

He's coming to us what the fuck?

[Stan]

I'm so confused. 

[Dave]

If he picks Leicester I get it, there isn't anything left for him to do at Palace.

[Dan+]

So are Palace actually still in for him then?

If he's anything like the player he was at Palace then that's a genuine coup and it's better than I expected in our position. So the talk is we'll pay £7mil for a loan fee but Galatasaray will pay his wages.

In a side lacking goals and X-Factor I really don't think we can turn our nose up at someone like Zaha. I'm a bit more hopeful if it happens and I've been extremely miserable about us for a while.

[Whiskey]

What an absolute shitshow Zaha's career has been. Had a decent few spells during his time with Palace but whenever he's moved elsewhere has completely failed to do it at a decent club - utterly wank for both United & Galatasaray. 

Has a humongous chip on his shoulder too which is bizarre what you take into account he's a massively unlikeable footballer, and a bit shit.

[Rick]

Makes zero sense to choose Leicester over Palace. He’s over 30 now, he’s had his big move to Gala and it hasn’t worked out. I’d go back to palace and see out the rest of my career cementing my spot as a club legend. 

[Stan]

7 hours ago, Rick said:

Makes zero sense to choose Leicester over Palace. He’s over 30 now, he’s had his big move to Gala and it hasn’t worked out. I’d go back to palace and see out the rest of my career cementing my spot as a club legend. 

We're a bigger club. 

[Rick]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

We're a bigger club. 

Massiv

[Whiskey]

2 hours ago, Stan said:

We're a bigger club. 

[Dave]

This is the first time all summer I have been concerned. The reason we've contacted an ex-player who left under a bit of a cloud to return on loan after a big drop in his stock would be because we don't think any of the other targets are worth transfer fee. Previously when we have been in this position we have signed nobody.

Keeping Eze feels crucial now and with his release fee that's out of control. At the minute we have the quality in Eze and Kamara with the depth of Sarr, Rak-Sakyi, Ayew and Franca. If you take out Eze and believe the rumours regarding Rak-Sakyi and Ayew then it becomes piss poor.

[Stan]

32 minutes ago, Whiskey said:

Best of the non-top 6 I'll have you know. Palace bigger than Everton, mind. 

[Dave]

[Whiskey]

11 hours ago, Stan said:

Best of the non-top 6 I'll have you know. Palace bigger than Everton, mind. 

Post number 638,872,182 about Everton. Off the charts banter on this place.

[Stan]

9 hours ago, Whiskey said:

Post number 638,872,182 about Everton. Off the charts banter on this place.

Thought it was more than that? 

[Dave]

Bates other teams. Cries when his team gets mentioned. Are we sure Whiskey isn't Cannabis?

[Whiskey]

6 hours ago, Dave said:

Bates other teams. Cries when his team gets mentioned. Are we sure Whiskey isn't Cannabis?

I mean, there was no bait from me. 

[Stan]

Move to Leicester (or potentially anywhere in UK) could be off due to tax implications.

Apparently to do with how much Zaha is taxed in Turkey compared to UK (20% Turkey; 45% UK), and that he would have to pay some money back to HMRC if he moved back here as he hasn't been out of the UK/in Turkey long enough to avoid doing so. 

I doubt this would happen for us now, which is a shame. Apparently we'd have to pay him something like £150k/w to cover the costs for Zaha, and there's not a chance we could stretch to that.  

[Dan+]

Following the Lens debacle we had some quite interesting links with Ioannidis, a very highly rated striker, Zaha, and Hlozek coming on loan.

But as is standard with Leicester these days. Ioannidis gone quiet, Zaha falls through, even Hlozek seems to be taking its time (though I expect this to probably still happen). So our summer reads at signing Atalanta's 6th choice centre back (for about £10-15mil as well!), a Chelsea youngster for the future, a Brighton youngster on loan and a winger we had an obligation to sign upon promotion anyway. While losing our manager, appointing a bloke with under a point a game record in this league, losing our player of the season (who hasn't been replaced). The season starts on Monday for fuck sake.

There is no worse club in the league at getting things done. This summer has been nothing short of an utter disgrace. Heads should roll for what is the latest embarrassment but this is just us now. This is our operation. These are the same people who oversaw a relegation with the 7th biggest wage bill in the country and were allowed to mark their own abysmal homework.

Fill your boots on a Spurs win Monday. They'll batter us. I cannot tell you a single thing there is to be positive about with us. Literally not a single one. I'm sick to death of being gaslit that things can't be better than this. It's utter codswallop.

[Dan+]

I had a bit of intel on this that the Lens game really spooked them. The manager has been telling you this (if you're ignoring him already, why appoint him?) and that we need bodies urgently. There's just never any urgency here. It's so laid back, so much assumption it will just click into gear without having to actually do anything. Winging it if you like. But that's a culture that has been bred from allowing people to get away with underperformance. It happens at so many levels, directors, players, it's just way too easy a ride.

Did I expect us to go and get those three players in for the Spurs game? No I didn't. But it's looking like one of them maximum. This is again a knock-on effect from winging it all summer.

I'm just completely out of benefit of the doubt now where these are concerned. I'd not normally be this annoyed before a ball has even been kicked but I've seen this script too many times. I don't give a clean slate every season.

We were massively up against it anyway because of this likely points deduction, which by the way, their defence is as good as "we didn't factor in that we'd have consequence for our underperformance" so I expect that to be laughed out of the room. But for fuck sake at least give us 'some' chance. Our XI on Monday is going to be a complete embarrassment. That's before I even get to how badly Cooper is managing things already. Unless the entire preseason has been about making a point to the board I am seriously concerned by what he's serving up. Nobody looks happy, nobody looks comfortable, we create nothing. That Lens game was laughable. We should've issued some sort of apology for wasting their time.

[Stan]

Gone to Lyon in the end.