Crystal Palace’s sporting director Dougie Freedman has come out and explained why the Eagles have not bought a right-back replacement this summer.
Freedman, 45, revealed that Palace are only going to make shrewd signings and that any business they do has to be “responsible”.
Palace failed to sign a replacement for Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who joined Manchester United earlier in the window for around £50m, according to reports from Sky Sports News.
Ex-Palace manager Freedman, who is in charge of recruiting players at Selhurst Park, said that due it being common knowledge that Wan-Bissaka went for such a large fee, the club are getting charged ‘inflated’ rates, and does not want to get drawn into paying over the odds for a player.
“People know we have got a bit of money from the Aaron Wan-Bissaka deal so prices are inflated,“ Freedman told the Balance podcast.
“It is the first time we’ve been in this position, it is very difficult. Every Palace fan out there, of course they want us to sign some players and I get that but we also want to be responsible.
“In the past, under certain sort of leaderships it has not been responsible with signings and has left the club in difficult moments, I’ve been involved in them over the years and I don’t want that to happen.
“Signings are going to be shrewd, wise and we’re going to wait for opportunities and when they come we will be as good as anybody to be in the ring but we have to be patient.“
While you can understand where Freedman is coming from, Crystal Palace needed to get a right-back in, and may end up paying the price for not replacing Wan-Bissaka.
Joel Ward and Martin Kelly are Palace’s two right-back choices for the upcoming campaign, neither of which were able to register an assist last year.
It was important to replace such a key player with at least another player who can get forward and have an attacking threat.
There was no surprise to see Wan-Bissaka leave for such a big price earlier in this window. He averaged the highest dribbles per game for a defender in the league with 1.7 and also managed to register three assists. Defensively, he managed the third most amount of tackles in the league with 3.7 per game and the seventh most amount of interceptions with 2.4 per game (WhoScored).
There were plenty of solutions out there for Palace which didn’t need a ridiculous outlay. The club also has a free loan space which could have been utilised.
While the Eagles are now short at right-back with only Joel Ward and Martin Kelly as realistic senior options, Freedman does make a good point. Indeed, even Manchester United were understood to have been priced out of moves during this transfer market so it’s not hard to imagine the South London outfit finding it difficult, especially as this seems to be the first time they’ve found themselves in this position.
Could Palace have done more to sign a right-back? Join the discussion by commenting below…
Considering that Palace are to be playing with 6’3″ Christian Benteke as the figurehead in their attack, with the 28-year-old starting in the recent 0-0 draw with Everton, then having someone with the crossing ability of Tavernier could add more strings to Palace’s bow and add more options to their attack.
Whether you’re getting charged too much or not, it is not really acceptable to allow your player of the season leave and not find a replacement.
Palace need an extra option at right-back, and while Joel Ward is fine, he is not really giving that team many options going forward.
Ultimately, Palace have £45m sitting in their bank because of that Wan-Bissaka deal and could spend well under a third of it and found someone who could offer something alternative to Joel Ward and Martin Kelly at right-back. There was always a high possibility that Wan-Bissaka would be leaving anyway, so the club should have been more organised in having a replacement lined up.
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