It’s an important summer for Roy Hodgson and Steve Parish at Crystal Palace, with both the chairman and the first-team manager needing the form that the Eagles showed at the back end of last season continuing in 2023/24.
Much of that momentum will be gained by how well the south Londoners work the transfer market.
Their talisman, Wilfried Zaha, still hasn’t signed for any other club and all the while that status quo remains, the Selhurst Park outfit are in with a shout of tempting him to stay.
It will be imperative that the right type of player is brought in before the start of the campaign to convince Zaha that his immediate future lies in south London, and to that end, it’s believed that one potential €15m target will make a final decision on the move shortly.
According to UOL, the Eagles have made a bid of €15m for Flamengo’s 19-year-old star, Matheus Franca, a player that John Textor, an investor in Botafogo and a shareholder at Palace, is keen to see arrive in south London.
Having already made 28 appearances for the Brazilian outfit per UOL, Franca clearly has pedigree at the top level, and if he and his club are to give the thumbs up to the deal, €15m could seem like a steal in the long run.
Everything should become clearer in the coming days and start to give Zaha some food for thought too.