Roy Hodgson has admitted it would be a “bitter blow” if Crystal Palace stars like Michael Olise left the club now, after Wilfried Zaha already departed Selhurst Park this summer.
Palace finished 11th in the Premier League last season, but their talisman Zaha finally left his boyhood club this summer after years of speculation about his future. He ran out his contract before exiting for free to join Galatasaray.
Hodgson is now wary of Palace’s need to hold onto their other assets ahead of the club’s Premier League opener at Sheffield United on Saturday. Olise, currently injured, is attracting interest right now, while Eberechi Eze earned new admirers by scoring six goals in ten games during last season’s run-in.
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Meanwhile centre-backs Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen has been the subjects of transfer speculation too.
The Palace manager said: “It would be a bitter blow now if we had to start the season with other of our top players being tempted away from us, or other clubs coming in and persuading Crystal Palace to sell them.
“There is no desire to sell any of those players, and we cannot avoid speculation that other clubs will be interested in players of that quality.”
Hodgson said of Zaha: “He’s done a wonderful job for the club during his time here. We can’t wish him well enough, but the fact is you can’t expect to have a player like Wilf doing what he’s done for you forever. The day is going to come when you have to prepare for life without him.”
Hodgson, who has made Joel Ward the club’s new captain, also confirmed that he has not spoken with want-away goalkeeper Vicente Guaita since admitting this week that the Spaniard has placed himself on strike in a bid to force his way out the door.
“I wanted to carry on because the club asked me to carry on, basically, and because I so much enjoyed last season, working with the team for the last ten games”, Hodgson said of his own situation. “The opportunity to carry on working with them was one that I certainly had no intention of resisting.”
