Crystal Palace are enjoying a comfortable season in the Premier League, with Patrick Vieira guiding the side to a potential top-half finish in his first season in charge at Selhurst Park there could be a problem unfolding ahead of next season.
What's the word?
According to journalist, Pete O'Rourke, Crystal Palace are unlikely to improve the current salary of Wilfried Zaha to extend his contract beyond the current 15 months that he has left at the club.
O'Rourke told GIVEMESPORT: “He’s on a pretty good deal at Palace as it stands right now. I think he’s probably the highest-paid player at the club, so I’m not sure if Palace will be willing to give him an improvement on that.”
Disaster for Palace
Wilfried Zaha has been back to his best this season and surely Palace will want to do everything they can to keep the striker at the club next season, but with rumoured interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal this summer, and the club unlikely to increase his wages, it could spell disaster for Vieira.
As per SofaScore, the 29-year-old hailed "phenomenal by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, has scored 11 goals and contributed one assist so far this season in the Premier League, with 1.4 key passes and 1.2 tackles per game as well as a pass accuracy of 81%, proving he has become a key component in the progress at Selhurst Park.
The £130k-per-week star has even admitted he would be open to a move in an interview with The Face, which will again only add to the problems the Palace board are faced with in keeping the forward at the club;
“I feel like I can have another shot at the top teams, because my dream is to win things,” he said.
“I’m good enough to go out there and compete with the best. If the opportunity came, I wouldn’t turn it down, because I feel like I deserve it."
Crystal Palace have already made the Ivorian goal machine their highest paid player, so it will be interesting to see if they make any movement on his salary ahead of this summer to secure his future before other clubs begin to make offers, otherwise Vieira will need to prepare for the loss of Zaha's output going into next season.
In other news: Vieira can unearth CPFC's next Mitchell in rarely-seen 18 y/o who is "full of energy"