Recent developments underline that Tottenham have missed a trick failing to land Wilfried Zaha
According to the club’s official website, Wilfried Zaha has signed a new long-term deal at Crystal Palace. The 25-year-old has been at the Premier League club since 2014 when he first joined on loan after struggling to break through at Manchester United, before making his move permanent there a year later, from which he has since gone from strength to strength to become one of the Premier League’s most influential attackers.
And Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham have reportedly been long-term admirers of the Ivory Coast international, but the North Londoners balked at the asking-price earlier this summer, a price that will now only rise following news that he has signed a new deal with the Eagles.
As such, there is little doubt that Spurs have missed a trick failing to land the wing wizard in recent times.
The Breakdown
Ultimately, there were occasions last season, most notably in the big matches, in which Pochettino’s side were crying out for someone like Zaha to produce a moment of brilliance in the final third of the pitch.
The most obvious example was their FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United at Wembley, whereby Spurs took the lead only to find themselves 2-1 down with half an hour to go, only to fail to really ask any testing questions of the Red Devils backline – they needed someone like Zaha to take the game to Jose Mourinho’s men.
Thus, while some Tottenham fans may have argued that the 25-year-old wouldn’t have commanded regular football at the North London club, there is no doubt that he would be an asset to have in the squad ahead of the new season, not least given Spurs will surely want to be competing for major honours both domestically and in Europe this time round.
And when one looks at just how influential he has been for Palace in the last few years, it further underlines that Tottenham have seriously missed a trick failing to get a deal done before the winger penned a new deal.
The 25-year-old netted seven goals and laid on 11 assists in the 2016/17 campaign to help keep Sam Allardyce’s side in the top-flight, before producing the goods again last term in bagging nine goals and laying on three assists to inspire Roy Hodgson’s men to safety – outside of the top six, there aren’t many better attackers in the league than Zaha.
And a new deal is only likely to add many more millions onto his price-tag ahead of the next few transfer windows, which is why, despite having been linked with the Ivorian for many a year now, Spurs have certainly missed a trick failing to get a deal done this summer, as it now looks extremely unlikely that they will be able to strike one in the coming years either.
Tottenham fans… what do you think? Let us know!