Wilfried Zaha transfer: Galatasaray move is the right thing for Crystal Palace – no matter how much it hurts
The Eagles’ offer of a four-year £200,000 per week contract to a 30-year-old was made out of love and loyalty rather than logic
The peak of Wilfried Zaha’s affinity with Crystal Palace, the days when he became inextricably woven into the club’s history, surely came in 2018.
That season may not have been when Zaha played his best, but it was when we saw his impact most easily. That year, you gave up looking for when Palace ended and Zaha started because of the futility of the exercise. He was them and they were him.
In 2017-18, Zaha was Palace’s top scorer from open play. He took shots more often than any teammate, created more chances more often and completed dribbles more often too. Palace played 10 matches without Zaha starting in the Premier League and they lost every single one; they didn’t even score in the first six.
With eight league games to go, Palace were in the bottom three. Cue Zaha recovering from injury, scoring five goals, Palace winning five of those eight and finishing 11th. That was Roy Hodgson’s first season. It could have all been so different without Wilf.
If Zaha’s dominance on the pitch has waned a little over the last two seasons (and that itself is debatable), it is a compliment to the young attacking midfielders that Palace have bought and developed.
But do not consider it a coincidence that Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise are both in the Zaha mould, flourishing and attracting interest from the biggest clubs in the land. Both were mentored and guided by Zaha’s precedent.
The rise of that pair, two ambitious, confident, forward-thinking footballers, created a justification for Zaha to leave Selhurst Park. But still, they desperately wanted him to stay.
You would struggle to argue cogently that a mid-table Premier League club that is having to be watchful of Financial Fair Play would be sensible to offer £200,000 a week over four years to a 30-year-old, particularly given the other options in similar roles. When the dust settles, this is the right thing for Crystal Palace.
For now, that dust is getting in everybody’s eyes. That offer wasn’t made through logic, but love and loyalty. The last time a Crystal Palace side without Wilfried Zaha existed was May 2014. Ever since, Zaha has been their reference point, their normality, their everything. He wasn’t always consistent and there were entire seasons when he struggled to carry a team on his back but, like in 2018, the sense of timing never left.
Some of the hurt, much of which may drift into bitterness as a means of emotional self-preservation, is because Zaha’s presence in Croydon felt permanent. He was – even if on some nonsensical and intangible level – theirs.
He grew up with 10 other family members in a three bedroom home on Rothesay Road, where Selhurst’s floodlights poked above the roofs of the terraced houses. He attended Whitehorse Manor Junior School, two minutes’ walk from the stadium. By the time he was eight, Palace knew of his talent and by 12 he had signed.
Former Palace manager Dougie Freedman tells a story of Zaha and his family. Freedman walked a short distance from Selhurst to the family home with a first professional contract in hand for Wilfried to sign and was welcomed by father, brother and nephews. With seven people squeezed into a tiny room, neither Wilf nor any family member looked at the contract before signing it. He just wanted to play for Crystal Palace. That was all that mattered.
Maybe that changed a little somewhere down the line. If there was some simmering, unrequited ambition, it is understandable. Zaha joined Manchester United at the age of 20 and was given 28 minutes of league football before being loaned and then sold.
He knows that he was good enough to make it bigger, but he made peace because he was making a difference to his club. He is still making a difference, but there are others who can step into the breach.
Perhaps Zaha even wanted to leave before now. There were too many rumours to too many high-profile clubs for him not to be tempted, however much succour playing for a hometown club provides.
In the nine seasons since rejoining, Zaha has finished between 10th and 15th in the Premier League every season. He has never played in European competition and never been a regular in a top-half team.
To some peers, Zaha’s career will be a cautionary tale of a player who ceded all power.
He signed a five-year contract in 2018, presumably with the best of intentions. It removed any release clause and, at the age of 25, effectively left Palace’s directors in charge of his career.
When interested buyers assembled every summer, Palace had no reason nor wish to sell and so, rightly, demanded a sky-high price. Zaha simply kept on keeping on. Remorse was never apparent.
It is the ambition to perform at the top that has fuelled the move to Turkey. The Super Lig is not a top-level competition by unfavourable comparison. Nor is this about money: Zaha could certainly have earned more in Saudi Arabia and reports suggest that Galatasaray have not matched Palace’s salary offer.
There is no immediate guarantee of Champions League football proper, given that Galatasaray face three qualifying rounds before the group stage (although they will be favourites in each of them).
That may all provoke a little disdain for this move, even from Palace supporters who cannot stomach any perception of being slighted. For some players, the Super Lig has become a backwater. Zaha probably doesn’t read the replies, but they’re telling them that he has given up his career at the age of 30.
Which – with the greatest of respect – is hogwash. Zaha loved life at Selhurst; he may even return one day. He has been either employed by Crystal Palace, or a trainee who hopes to be employed, for more than half his lifetime. And now he wants to take a shot at something that may be unlikely and may be blurry and a little ill-defined. That doesn’t make you a fool or a glutton; it makes you a dreamer.
