Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha celebrates scoring their first goal
Sky Sports’ Nubaid Haroon has backed Wilfried Zaha to make a shock U-turn and stay at Crystal Palace live on air.
The Lowdown: Future looks to be away from Selhurst Park
It has been widely reported that Zaha has no interest in signing a new deal at Selhurst Park as the winger looks to make one more big move during his career before it enters its twilight years.
Of course, Zaha has already made a big move but that came a decade ago when he joined Manchester United, where he was only ever afforded two Premier League appearances under David Moyes.
However, he hasn’t let that hold him back, having gone on to become Palace’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League, while he is now also a threat through the middle under Patrick Vieira, netting 21 goals since the Frenchman took over.
The Latest: Zaha into his final six months
Despite being into the final six months of his contract, David Ornstein has reported Zaha won’t leave this month – and that’s prompted Haroon to suggest the winger could now stay with the Eagles.
He said: “If you follow Zaha on his Instagram, on his social media, he very much loves being in South London – that’s his community, that’s where he’s from and that is him.
“So I do wonder if, say, Dortmund come calling, whether he goes, ‘I might get a couple of years at Dortmund, but then I kind of want to stay here as well’.
“If Palace have the money to keep him, I think in the end, he’ll probably end up staying.”
The Verdict: Palace would struggle to replace Zaha
Zaha will certainly go down as a Palace legend for the role he played in getting them to the Premier League with his memorable goals against bitter rivals Brighton in the Championship play-offs and what he has managed to achieve in the division by keeping the club in the top flight since then.
The Ivory Coast international has been Palace’s top scorer for the last two seasons and looks on course to repeat that feat with six goals to his name already, so it’s no surprise that he still wishes to challenge himself at a higher level.
From Palace’s point of view, it will be difficult to find one player that can do what Zaha has done for them over the years, so they could look to sign a few players instead and try to spread the workload across the squad should he depart.
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