Zaha leveraging Chelsea, Spurs rumors into new Crystal Palace contract

It’s a story as old as the transfer window itself — which isn’t really as old as one might imagine considering transfer windows have only existed since 2002 — player turns rumored “interest” from other teams into new contract. This interest can be real or fake; it usually doesn’t matter.

The latest example is Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, who was strongly linked with both Chelsea and Spurs, but the former ended up keeping Willian (and re-signing Pedro for an additional year), while the latter decided to set a new transfer window record with exactly zero signings. Palace reportedly setting a £75m asking price certainly didn’t help either, though at the time, Zaha was supposedly “considering” a transfer request.

The only thing he’s considering now is a new contract.

“[Transfer rumours] make no difference to me, because I had my head down anyway. All that stuff was not going to affect me or how the team were playing. Whatever happens, happens.”

”But I’m all Palace - and you can see on the pitch that all I think about is the team doing well.

“We are still speaking about [a potential new contract], still negotiating, whatever. Just going to see if we can come to an agreement.”

-Wilfried Zaha; Source: Sky Sports

How convenient!

New contract or no new contract, Zaha rumors will undoubtedly be back in January or next summer and seeing as how both Willian and Pedro are now over 30 and will need replacing soon, it might make sense for Chelsea to seriously consider the possibility ... especially if Zaha can add a few more goals to go along with his dribbling skills.

source: WhoScored