Everton Transfer News: Wilfried Zaha Staying With Crystal Palace

Zaha has "beef" with his chairman as he's stopped from leaving Selhurst Park.

by Andrew Pollard
wilfried zaha crystal palace david silva man city
© Alan Martin/ActionPlus/Corbis

Roy Hodgson talking about having beef? What a time to be alive!

In the up and down potential departure of forward Wilfried Zaha this summer, it looks like any hopes that the Ivory Coast international had of leaving Selhurst Park have now been dashed.

Previously, Zaha had talked up how he wanted to move to Arsenal – the Gunners then putting in a low-ball bid of £40 million – and more recently it’s been Everton leading the race for the player.

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As of yesterday, the former Manchester United player officially put in a transfer request, and then today he missed training as he desperately tried to engineer a transfer before today’s 5pm transfer deadline.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Wilfried Zaha is going nowhere – but also that the player is hugely unhappy at that fact.

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From Hodgson, “Yes, he’s staying. We are pleased about that. He’s an important player for the club.”

The interesting part, however, was the Palace boss going on to add, “Everyone here has a good relationship with him. There’s not a problem with him. His beef is with the chairman and owners of the club because he wanted to leave and they haven’t received the offer that the think is sufficient to allow him to love.”

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Hodgson rightly pointed out the long contract Zaha signed with Palace – a contract that still has four years to run – and that the Selhurst Park club didn’t receive an offer that they thought to be acceptable for their star player.

For Wilfried Zaha, it looks like it might be a long few months ahead as any move now appears that it won’t be happening until at least January – and that’s only if Palace are willing to sell the player.

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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 dayjob, 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.