Why this £120,000-per-week PL star should be Tottenham’s priority this summer

Why Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha Should Be Tottenham’s Priority This Summer

Champions League hopefuls Tottenham Hotspur appear to be thinking about another raid on Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha and he could be just what the North London club need.

Spurs have maintained an interest in Palace’s star man for some time now and will no doubt be confident of signing him given the struggles that his current club have endured this season, eventually getting their man after two previous failed attempts.

Mauricio Pochettino and the Tottenham board are preparing for their latest bid before this summer, facing likely competition from Chelsea to gain the services of the 25-year-old forward with Manchester City potentially also in the running.

Beating clubs of that nature to the signature of Zaha would be a huge fillip for Spurs and proof that they have the ambition required to become perennial title contenders and regulars in the Champions League’s knockout stages.

The club moves into a new stadium next season and, despite the financial burden this will cause, they are desperate to have a squad befitting their plush new surroundings. One worry, of course, is that Zaha has already played among one of the league’s big boys and ultimately failed after an underwhelming two years at Manchester United led to him re-signing for Palace three years ago.

But things have changed, in terms of his reputation at least, and the Ivory Coast man would these days command a fee somewhere north of £50million with an improvement on his already lofty £120,000-per-week wages with his current contract running until 2022.

Palace should play their way out of trouble from the bottom of the league but only as long as players like Zaha stay fit. His value to Roy Hodgson is obvious though it does seem that his long-term future does not lie at Selhurst Park.

After a bad run of form of late, the Eagles sit just a single point above the relegation zone with eleven games to go and so they are very much still in the mix as far as the drop is concerned. Zaha is seen as absolutely crucial to the club staying up and the value in which he is held by his current club shows why he can make such a big difference to Tottenham.

The club have been willing to take the obvious talent from struggling teams before and it hasn’t always worked, Moussa Sissoko, formerly of Newcastle, being the one who springs to mind. However, despite some rather annoying dives Zaha clearly has a better attitude than people like the French international and may well just move Spurs another few percent forward and that is very valuable these days.