Crystal Palace are expected to offer Wilfried Zaha a new contract to make him the club’s best-paid player in the summer in an attempt to ward off interest in the Ivory Coast forward from a host of Premier League sides.
Zaha scored his sixth league goal of the season on Saturday and laid on the assist for Christian Benteke’s winner against the leaders, Chelsea, as Palace recorded a fourth successive victory under Sam Allardyce. It continued the 24-year-old’s fine run of form that has caught the attention of some of the country’s biggest clubs, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City understood to have expressed an interest in recent weeks in signing him.
Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino is also a long-term admirer and had a £12m bid for Zaha rejected by Palace last summer, with the chairman, Daniel Levy, expected to make a renewed bid at the end of the season for a player whose current contract expires in 2020.
Speaking on BBC 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme on Sunday, the Palace chairman, Steve Parish, said he intends to discuss an improved contract with Zaha’s representatives as soon as their Premier League status is assured. The south London club are expected to offer the youth team product a salary in excess of Benteke’s £110,000-a-week package.
“We would love to keep Wilfried. We will sit down and talk to him as soon as we’re safe and I’m very hopeful of doing so,” said Parish, who also revealed that Zaha does not have a release clause in his current deal, which is worth around £35,000 a week.
However, with Zaha believed to be keen on testing himself at a higher level, it remains to be seen whether any new deal would contain a clause allowing him to join a club playing in the Champions League. Palace, though, remain intent on convincing their prize asset that he would be best served remaining in south London if they can secure top-flight football for a fifth successive year.
