Crystal Palace have been linked with a shock move for Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Barry Bannan as the Premier League outfit look to add further reinforcements to Patrick Vieira's ranks.

What's the story?

According to Football League World, the Eagles are one of three Premier League sides closely monitoring the Scotsman's situation, with Burnley and Watford also credited with an interest.

The report claims that nothing is at a particularly advanced stage at this moment in time, but Palace are known to be in the market for extra players before the August 31 deadline, meaning a surprise transfer could be on the cards.

He's not good enough

Palace have had a busy window so far, allowing several experienced campaigners to depart Selhurst Park on free transfers before replacing them with some exciting, young acquisitions.

However, new manager Vieira openly admitted that he wants the capital club to conclude some more business this summer as his squad is a little light in a couple of areas.

"When you look at the squad we are maybe a little bit more light on numbers, and we are working hard to improve the squad (with) the window are still open. We will try to bring players that can improve our squad.

"I think where we are maybe a little bit more short is upfront and in the midfield, I think it would be good to reinforce those positions," revealed Vieira in his pre-match press conference on Friday.

Nevertheless, targeting a player who flopped during his time in the Premier League and has spent the last six-and-a-half years playing in the Championship as a result is surely not what the Frenchman had in mind.

The last top-flight team Bannan actually played for was Palace in the first half of the 2014/15 campaign, but after only making two starts all season, he moved to Bolton Wanderers in the second tier in January.

Since then, the diminutive box-to-box dynamo has carved out a good career for himself with Sheffield Wednesday, making 262 appearances for the south Yorkshire outfit.

Yet at 31, he's not the ideal target for a club in the midst of a squad overhaul, who are expected to be involved in a relegation scrap to retain their status in the top-flight.

Therefore, Palace chairman Steve Parish must avoid a potential nightmare and focus his attention on other midfielder options such as Will Hughes if he's to guide the capital club into their 10th consecutive Premier League campaign.

And, in other news...Crystal Palace suffer transfer blow in pursuit of £7m machine, Vieira will be gutted