Palace will resist any late effort to prise away Zaha

Crystal Palace have had no official contact yet this summer window from other Premier League clubs for Wilfried Zaha, their leading player, and would regard any attempt now to sign the player before Thursday’s 5pm close of the window as having come too late.

Zaha, 25, who signed a five-year deal last summer, would be irreplaceable for Palace at this stage of the window, and the club would see any attempt to open talks as unnecessarily provocative at this late stage. There has been no valuation placed upon him by his club because he is regarded as indispensable but any negotiations would have to start at a fee well in excess of the transfer records that currently stand at Chelsea and Tottenham, two clubs understood to be interested.

While there have been suggestions of unhappiness on Zaha’s part, Palace feel the relationship with the player they brought back from Manchester United in 2015 remains strong and have heard nothing from clubs thought to be interested.

Roy Hodgson has given Zaha as free a role as he can permit the player, without whom the club did not win a single point in their Premier League campaign last season. The club feel that without that freedom at a bigger club he may struggle to flourish as he did when he joined the post–sir Alex Ferguson United in 2013. Another stellar season for Zaha at Palace would give him a more realistic chance of being a key figure at a bigger club and would also push the price up for Palace.

The Premier League mistakenly named Ruben Loftus-cheek among Palace’s squad yesterday, listing him as being on loan at the club for a second season. The error was rectified and as things stand there is no prospect of the England World Cup international returning to Selhurst Park and certainly not as part of a deal that would involve Zaha going in the other direction.