Crystal Palace have had their successes and their failures in the transfer market in recent times. But in 2015, they really dropped the ball.
Crystal Palace are currently the envy of many in the Premier League, with their current recruitment system uncovering some real gems.
This summer, Palace sold Ebere Eze to Arsenal in a £68million deal and have now uncovered a potential £100million player in Adam Wharton who’s a long-term target for Real Madrid.
But it’s not always been so good for the Eagles. There have been some tough times under owner Steve Parish in the last 15 years, with the club having definitely had their share of transfer flops.
Back in 2015, though, Crystal Palace actually rejected the chance to sign a player who’s now regarded as one of the best in the world, and certainly one of the best in the Premier League.
Crystal Palace once rejected the chance to sign Virgil van Dijk
Back in 2015, Virgil van Dijk was turning heads in Scotland with Celtic. In fact, he attracted the attention of Crystal Palace who were then managed by Neil Warnock. After a club scouting mission, Warnock was told to pull the trigger on a deal for van Dijk. But the club’s data analysis team then decided he was too slow.
Van Dijk instead joined Southampton before moving to Liverpool in 2018. Now, per The Guardian, van Dijk earns £400,000-a-week and is revered as one of the world’s best centre-backs.
Warnock previously revealed on talkSPORT: “I wanted a centre-half badly at Palace and we were told about one in Scotland, and Ronnie Jepson [first-team coach] went up to see him, and he came back and said, ‘Yes gaffer, he’s a good lad him, if we get £3-4million we can sign him. So I told the chairman at the time and he went, and by that time, all the clubs had started with this data thing, hadn’t they.
“And it came back the next day and said, ‘I’m sorry Neil, we don’t want to go ahead with that’, and I asked him why and he [Parish] said ‘Because they don’t think he’s quick enough’. So I said, ‘Yeah, he’s not quick enough because he doesn’t have to be quick in Scotland, he reads the game so good he can stroll it’.”
Marc Guehi’s stats vs Virgil van Dijk’s in 2025/26
Right now, Crystal Palace have their own revered centre-back in Marc Guehi. But Guehi’s Crystal Palace future is uncertain with it looking like he’ll leave as a free agent next summer, and potentially join van Dijk at Liverpool.
He could yet be the long-term replacement for van Dijk. In fact, Guehi outranks van Dijk in some key defensive statistics in the Premier League so far this season…
| Statistic (PL) | Guehi in 25/26 | VVD in 25/26 |
| Starts | 7 | 7 |
| Passes per game | 46.4 | 70.7 |
| Pass % | 86 | 89 |
| Clean sheets | 3 | 2 |
| Interceptions per game | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Tackles per game | 2.1 | 0.4 |
| Clearances per game | 5 | 8.6 |
| Recoveries per game | 3.4 | 2.3 |
For Crystal Palace, losing Guehi for nothing would be a real blow. But Crystal Palace have a lot of money to spend in January and next summer too, and expect the club to go out and source another similar-type player, who could even go on to be better than Guehi.
