Zaha tells Crystal Palace he ‘wants to leave’ this summer
Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has told the club he wants to leave amid links to Arsenal and Tottenham, according to reports.
Zaha rejoined Palace on a permanent deal from Manchester United in 2015. He only played four times for the Red Devils.
The attacker has consistently been Crystal Palace’s best player since he returned to the club.
Ancelotti exit sends Everton back to square one. Again.
Overall, Zaha has 68 goals and 72 assists from just short of 400 appearances for the Eagles. This includes eleven goals and two assists from 30 Premier League outings in 2020/21.
The Ivory Coast international has regularly been linked with a move away from Palace.
Zaha came close to joining Everton in 2019. The Toffees offered £70m plus Cenk Tosun and James McCarthy. This was rejected and Everton instead opted to sign Alex Iwobi from Arsenal.
Former Palace manager Roy Hodgson recently suggested that Zaha’s future is at Palace:
“He’s been very good. He’s missed more games through injury than in previous years which is a blow for us, but we’re hoping to keep him fit for the next nine.
“He seems to be pretty much clear at the moment as to what he wants to do and where he wants to be. We’re hoping to benefit from that in the next nine games.
“At the end of the season, we’ll see what happens then.”
Despite this, Zaha has told The Face that he wants to “win things” before he retires:
“I feel like I can have another shot at the top teams, because my dream is to win things.
‘I’m good enough to go out there and compete with the best.
‘If the opportunity came, I wouldn’t turn it down, because I feel like I deserve it. It’s so I can show my kids: “this is what daddy won”.’
The Times have now reported that Zaha has told Crystal Palace that he wants to leave the club this summer. He would like a deal to be finalised before teams return for pre-season next month.
The report adds that he has two years remaining on his contract that is worth £120,000 per week.