Crystal Palace now consider bidding to sign £2.5m midfielder in January amid injury crisis

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Oliver Glasner currently has an injury crisis on his hands in the midfield department at Crystal Palace.

The Austrian is without Adam Wharton, Jefferson Lerma and Eberechi Eze due to injuries, while Cheick Doucoure was not fit enough to play the entire 90 minutes in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against Fulham.

Daichi Kamada will also miss the next three games after receiving a straight red card in that loss.

As a result of this situation, 21-year-old Justin Devenny made his Premier League debut against Fulham alongside Marc Guehi, who is obviously a central defender, showing just how thin our midfield department really is.

Now – in a bid to combat this problem – Crystal Palace are considering a January move for Habib Keita.

Crystal Palace could make offer to sign Habib Keita from Clermont

A story by Africa Foot now states that Crystal Palace are keen to sign Habib Keita.

The Malian has impressed in Ligue 2 for Clermont so far this season, scoring one goal while also providing two assists in 12 appearances from central midfield.

Africa Foot claim that Keita was close to sealing a €3m (£2.5m) move to RC Lens last summer after Clermont were relegated from Ligue 1 – having impressed in the 2023/24 campaign, even scoring against PSG.

However, Joseph Oughourlian – owner of RC Lens – cancelled the deal, despite almost every document being signed for the agreement, as he made several financial cuts.

Now, that could benefit Crystal Palace, with Freedman sniffing around the exciting 22-year-old.

Oliver Glasner and Dougie Freedman need to agree on a plan for Habib Keita

In recent years, we have seen transfers occur which seemingly were not unanimous decisions across the board.

For example, Freedman obviously saw something in Naouirou Ahamada, enough to spend £10.5m to sign the Frenchman from VfB Stuttgart back in January 2023.

However, none of Patrick Vieira, Roy Hodgson or Glasner handed the 22-year-old a start in the Premier League, suggesting it was more of a signing from the board.

Ahamada is now warming the bench at Rennes after joining on loan last summer, so if a deal for Keita does materialise in January, a plan must be put in place to ensure his talents are not wasted in SE25.