Everton Transfer News: Wilfried Zaha Skips Training As He Looks To Force Goodison Move

The Crystal Palace forward has followed up yesterday's transfer request by missing training.

Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha
Jon Buckle/PA Archive

After putting in a transfer request yesterday, Sky Sports is reporting that Wilfried Zaha has today missed training as he looks to force his Crystal Palace exit.

After Arsenal failed with bids for the forward earlier this transfer window, Everton have recently emerged as the frontrunners for Zaha’s signature.

Despite proclaiming how Arsenal were his boyhood team who he always dreamt of playing for and how he wants to play Champions League football, Wilf now seems adamant that he will be joining Everton before the transfer window closes at 5pm today.

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Earlier this week, Everton lodged a bid of £70 million plus midfielder James McCarthy and striker Cenk Tosun for the player – a bid that Palace turned down. Zaha himself was said to be extremely disappointed at Palace’s rejection of this bid as he looks to move to pastures new.

Even though the 26-year-old wants to leave Palace, it’s the Selhurst Park club who really hold all of the cards here due to the fact that Zaha still has four years left on his contract.

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Crystal Palace are in no urgent need to sell the player, although they obviously run the risk of having a disgruntled Zaha on their books for the foreseeable future should he not get the move he so desperately wants.

One other option for Zaha is the reported interest from Napoli – the Italian transfer window not closing until September 2nd – but if Palace were to sell the forward, it’s likely they would want to do it today so that they at least have some albeit brief time to try and bring in a replacement.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.