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Dan Cook believes that Wilfried Zaha, Luka Milivojevic, James McArthur and Jairo Riedewald will likely level Crystal Palace this summer.
The Lowdown: Rebuild on the cards at Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace have been on a sort of rebuild since Patrick Vieira replaced Roy Hodgson with 16 players having left the club permanently during his tenure and a whole load of youthful players being recruited.
However, with their talisman and star player Zaha set to depart as a free agent this summer, that in itself is enough to force the Eagles into a rethink about how they go about achieving success.
Losing Zaha will be a killer blow for Palace as he’s finished as the club’s top scorer for the last two seasons and is on course to achieve that same feta once again – despite having missed four of the last five games – but Cook believes there’ll be a few more following him out the door.
The Latest: Vieira set for a summer shake-up
Cook has name-dropped a number of players on the HLTCO podcast, alongside Zaha that are looking likely to leave this summer, leaving Vieira short in several departments, especially midfield.
He said: (7:40) “I could kick the can further down the road and suggest there is going to be a need for a significant rebuild come the summer with Wilfried Zaha likely to be leaving, with the likes of Luka Milivojevic, Jairo Riedewald and James McArthur all pretty likely I would say to be heading out of the door.”
The Verdict: Palace are in for some turbulent months
Losing three central midfielders – albeit they have just two league starts between them this season – will leave Vieira with a huge task this summer of recruiting players of better ability, but also ones that can provide depth and not be agitating to start every week.
While that will be alarming for many Palace fans, the main worry will be how they go about replacing someone of Zaha’s ability as he has for so long now, been Mr Crystal Palace and the one who could always drag them through tough times.
The fact that Palace won’t even be getting any money for Zaha to help them peace their maverick winger will only make things even more difficult and the way they go about recruiting this summer could well be the difference between them taking the next step under Vieira or staying in relation battles.
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