Wilfried Zaha has admitted that he was distracted by the media attention surrounding his transfer saga in the summer.
The former Manchester United flop handed in a transfer request at Selhurst Park amid interest from both Everton and Arsenal.
A confluence of factors contributed to each deal falling through and Everton eventually signed Alex Iwobi from the Gunners, who signed Nicolas Pepe from Lille.
It remains to be seen if there will be as much interest in January or in the summer but Zaha has claimed that he has no intention of “disrespecting” the club, per The Daily Express, with his focus now solely on Roy Hodgson’s side.
He said: “The team has not disrespected me, or the club, or the fans. So they don’t deserve me disrespecting them.”
One feels it is a bit late to be saying that.
Naturally, Zaha’s head was all over the place at the start of the season and one can perhaps understand why; it can’t be easy to ask to leave your place of work and then be forced to return, head bowed.
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Nevertheless, his performances throughout the first half of this season have been terrible.
He has scored three goals this season and two came in consecutive games, against Liverpool in a 2-1 defeat in November and in a 2-0 win over Burnley the following week. His other came on Monday against Brighton.
Have there been any positives other than that? He has drawn 14 blanks and provided one assist, in a 2-0 win over Norwich City in September.
It hasn’t been for the want of trying. He has only failed to have a shot in three games, while he has completed at least two dribbles in every game, with a zenith of nine against Wolves, per WhoScored.
But one feels that he has let the lack of a move get to him, inadvertently costing the club a fair few points. In six games this season – none of which Palace won – Zaha failed to have a key pass. He had five against Norwich but he regularly has just one or none.
This is not a player who has knuckled down and attempted to prove Everton and Arsenal wrong.
What he could have done is decided to earn his move away from Palace, to light up south London throughout this season and make himself an attractive prospect for any potential buyers.
He has done the opposite. His head went down, he has played relatively appallingly throughout the campaign and now it feels as though there will be precious little interest in him in the winter window.
Did he really play for us?! No Palace fan has managed to name all of these obscure Eagles signings….
After all, Zaha scored 10 goals and registered 10 assists last season and clearly has the ability required to be Palace’s talisman.
He has simply decided not to be this term; he can say he won’t disrespect Palace but the damage is already done.
Meanwhile, Palace have been linked with a former Premier League striker.
