Oliver Glasner will be desperate to strengthen his Crystal Palace side this summer and this 24-year-old could be perfect.
Crystal Palace are surely lined up for a busy summer, with multiple big-money exits expected along with incomings.
One player that looks likely to be a target once again is Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah. The striker was heavily linked in January as Dougie Freedman and co’s first-choice striking target with a £30m bid even being submitted.
Now, HITC Football‘s transfer expert Graeme Bailey has suggested this chase for the 24-year-old isn’t over yet and could resume in the summer.
The signing would be monumental and something likely to delight Eberechi Eze this summer given the two have a relationship through England.
Crystal Palace signing Eddie Nketiah would be a game-changer
This summer is likely to see a shake-up across the pitch for the Eagles with the forward position among the most important to improve upon.
With Odsonne Edouard likely to see his time at Selhurst Park end, it could be a big money statement signing up front with Nketiah being just that.
This season, Nketiah’s game time for Arsenal has been cut substantially which points toward a potential exit, but despite this, he still has five goals and four assists in just 1,043 minutes in the Premier League.
This equates to a goal contribution every 115 minutes that he’s on the pitch which is very impressive and could add a game-changing factor up front for Palace.
He’s a player that needs to depart the Emirates in order to reach his potential and so Palace could hand him that opportunity for what we expect would be a fee of around £30m-£40m based on January’s links.
A statement signing that Glasner would be absolutely delighted by and who Eze would also be excited to play with.
Signing Nketiah could tempt Eze into staying another year
This summer, Palace will face a tricky task to convince Marc Guehi, Michael Olise and Eze to reject interest from big clubs and stay at Selhurst Park.
Out of the three, we’d say Eze is the one likeliest to stay as selling all three in one window would be incredibly self-destructive.
So if he is to be tempted into staying, Palace will need to give him teammates he’ll enjoy playing with and who are real improvements on the current team.
24-year-old Nketiah would be just this as the two are known to be close friends through their connection with England.
Above this personal relationship, the pair would combine well on the pitch and Eze could be tempted to remain in order to play in the new look Palace for at least another year under the Austrian manager.
