SAKA, ANTONY AND 10 PREMIER LEAGUE STARS HEADING TO THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP
According to Sabah, Crystal Palace have submitted a £9 million bid for Ozan Tufan, a player the Eagles have admired for a while.
In fact, Sporting Director Dougie Freedman has been aware of the midfielder for a number of years now.
The Turkey international told Goal that he was literally at the airport on his way to sign for the south Londoners in January 2018.
‘Crystal Palace had showed a real interest in me a few years back and I nearly signed for them. We even had our plane tickets to England. But right before the day we planned to fly to England, Crystal Palace’s (Bakary) Sako got injured.
‘The board had an emergency meeting and they decided to sign a replacement for him. So my move failed. They signed Alexander Sorloth instead of me.’
Now, however, the Eagles are back in for the 25-year-old – if Sabah are to be believed.
In our view, this information means that Freedman is seriously convinced by the man with 55 caps for Turkey.
Why else would he have pursued the Bursa-born maestro for so many years?
If you’re wondering what type of player Tufan is, former Fenerbahce boss Vitor Pereira once tipped him to emulate Manchester City icon Yaya Toure.
If Palace end up getting a player with even a fifth of the Ivorian’s talent, then they’ll have made a fantastic signing.
It’s not often that players come straight from Turkey into the Premier League, let alone perform well once they do arrive.
In that respect, this obsession with Tufan is very interesting.
He must surely have something about him, or the Eagles wouldn’t be so infatuated by his services.
