Hogdson wants Crystal Palace to keep Michy Batshuayi

Michy Batshuayi finished the season on a good note, scoring three goals in his final two games for Crystal Palace, doubling his output for the half-season loan in South London — and, including his tough times in Valencia, tripling his output for the entire season — and perhaps reminding everyone that he does have some innate finishing ability that tends to come out in regular intervals.

Unfortunately for Michy, his Chelsea fate appears to be sealed already. Even with the threat of a transfer ban, not to mention the floundering of both Álvaro Morata and then Gonzalo Higuaín, the Blues didn’t seem to be re-considering Michy’s future at the club, and now, with just two years left on his contract, his time in the SW6 could be up for good.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson has been pleased enough with the 25-year-old however, and certainly wouldn’t mind if he could keep him for next season as well. Hodgson, who’s now done well with two successive Chelsea loanee after last year’s star turn from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, believes that Batshuayi (combined with the likes of Wilfried Zaha, if they can keep him) could help take Palace to the next level.

“Batshuayi is a different case [than Zaha], he’s on loan. That’s not in our hands. I do know he has been happy with us here. It’s been pretty obvious we appreciate him.

“These are questions for Steve Parish and the board of directors. I can’t nail people’s feet to the ground, I can’t turn down bids. Only the directorship of the club can do that. But I can speak on their behalf when I say that they are as aware as we are of how important these people are.

“If you want to keep going forward, we have to be equally as good, if not better, to finish anywhere near the top 10 because the league gets better and better every year and more and more money is spent every year.”

-Roy Hodgson; source: Telegraph

Palace were one of the teams originally chasing Batshuayi before Chelsea managed to beat them as well as Spurs to the Belgian international’s signature. Unfortunately, as much fun as Michy has been on social media, and as important as his goals were in Conte’s first, title-winning season, the return on Chelsea’s initial £33m investment has not been great.

Chances are, if we are to sell, we’d look to recoup the full transfer fee. Chelsea supposedly quoted £35m to Everton in January, after the whole Valencia debacle, and Michy’s stock has only risen since.