Crystal Palace: Fans warn club about signing Lyon’s Rafael da Silva

Some Crystal Palace fans have made it clear that they do not want to see their club pursue Lyon defender Rafael da Silva this month.

According to Sky Sports, the Ligue 1 outfit have offered Rafael to Palace, among other Premier League sides, with the Eagles said to be in the market for a right-back.

[freshpress-poll id=”271641″]

However, several Palace supporters have made it known on Twitter that they would be firmly against such a transfer.

The south London club’s interest in signing a new right-back stems from the sale of Aaron Wan-Bissaka last summer. The 22-year-old, of course, joined Manchester United in a £50m deal, reducing Roy Hodgson’s options in that department.

Rafael, however, would be quite an underwhelming replacement going off stats. This season, the former Manchester United man has averaged 1.9 tackles and 1.3 interceptions per Ligue 1 game (via WhoScored). That falls quite short of Wan-Bissaka’s Premier League averages of 4.1 and two respectively.

Instead, it appears some Palace fans would rather the club go for a much younger option, with Derby County’s Jayden Bogle just one name currently floating around on Twitter. Like Wan-Bissaka, he also boasts better numbers than the Brazilian when it comes to tackles (1.6) and interceptions (1.4) made per league game.

For now, though, the south London outfit may have to settle for a more short-term option like Rafael or Tottenham’s Kyle Walker-Peters, with the 22-year-old said to be close to joining on a loan deal.

Take a look at some of the things being said below…

https://twitter.com/King_Pierrick/status/1214581885109751813?s=20

Can we just go for that other bloke from genk or look at bogle

— Ben (@BxnMatthews75) January 7, 2020