Former Arsenal star Paul Merson has urged Eddie Nketiah to snub a move to Crystal Palace in the final two days of the transfer window.
The Sun revealed yesterday that new Eagles boss Patrick Vieira is keen to sign the young Englishman this summer. The report claimed that Palace are willing to fork out £12 million for Nketiah, who has less than a year left on his contract.
It is no secret that Arsenal would like to offload Nketiah this summer. Keeping hold of him now would mean that we’ll lose him for peanuts in January or absolutely nothing next summer. A deal is likely to happen before Tuesday night, but Merson has told Nketiah to snub Vieira.
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Paul Merson: Eddie Nketiah shouldn’t join Crystal Palace
Merson said on Sky Sports (28th August, 02:55 pm): “I am not sure. He went to Leeds United and he didn’t do it at Leeds. You are working on scraps. It’s a hard situation for the centre-forward.
You look at Palace and they aren’t scoring bundles of goals. If I was a centre-forward, and the way he plays, he wants the little balls down the channels.
“I don’t see Palace dominating enough football matches that far up the pitch to get those little balls down the channels for him to hit across the goal. That’s the kind of player he is. I don’t think that’s a good move for him at all.”
The Insider’s View:
Arsenal want Nketiah gone, Palace seem like the only club that are interested and the Englishman himself is desperate for regular game time. That should make this a pretty straightforward deal to complete.
Merson does have a point when it comes to Palace’s style of play. They rarely play those little balls in between the lines for strikers to get onto, which is not ideal for Nketiah, but the Englishman is capable of more.
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He has the quality to hold the ball up fairly well and bring others into play. Nketiah dropping deep to receive the ball will open up space for Palace’s wingers to exploit, and that could make them a really dangerous side, especially with Wilfried Zaha thriving in such areas.
