Roy Hodgson has revealed that Arsenal are not “anywhere near” the valuation that is required for Crystal Palace’s star Wilfried Zaha.
Speaking to Sky Sports after Crystal Palace’s 6-2 loss in a pre-season friendly away to Barnet, he told reporters that there is not a lot to discuss until Arsenal come in with an offer which matches his market value.
Sky have previously reported that Arsenal had made an offer of £40m for the winger, but Palace subsequently rejected the bid as they value the player more towards £80m.
Considering Zaha’s importance to Crystal Palace – his 10 league goals, five assists and six penalties won – there is really no surprise that the club aren’t considering an alleged £40m offer.
It’s not hard to fathom that Palace, without their all-time Premier League top scorer, are not as good as the team they are with him. The tricky attacker provided a goal or assist every 202.7 minutes in the league last season and finished as the club’s second top scorer in the league with 10, ironically behind Milivojevic, who has Zaha’s skill and pace to thank for half of his 12 goals, thanks to him winning six penalties.
Indeed, the Eagles only broke their curse of not winning without him in the side recently, having gone 812 days on that front before beating Leicester City in December.
Goal contributing statistics are only half of the story with Zaha and perhaps that explains why Arsenal are interested in the forward. Even though Zaha has scored more goals than any of Arsenal’s attacking midfielders or wingers last season, it’s his unpredictability and alternative threat which makes him so attractive.
Since Zaha rejoined Palace in the 2014/15 season, he has recorded the highest number of attempted dribbles (1,296), second-highest amount of completed dribbles and duels won (588, 1299), the fifth-highest amount of touches in the opposition box (598), the second-most fouls won (437) and the most amount of penalties won (15).
When looking solely at dribbling, he averages 3.4 completed dribbles per match; Alex Iwobi is the closest with 2.1, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan is 1.1, meaning that both of them together average less than Zaha, with all stats from WhoScored and the official Premier League website.
Crystal Palace shouldn’t let Zaha’s transfer fee dwindle just because the player has suggested he wants to play in the Champions League – which Arsenal are not even competing in.
Even if Zaha pushes for a move, he signed a five-year contract last August and Palace are not in need of the money after selling Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United.
His value is judged by Crystal Palace, and even at £80m, that does not even represent money which can replace what he offers, and it’s very hard to see Steve Parish budging on this having previously been fairly strong in his view that the player would remain at Selhurst Park.
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