Waiting, but not for the sake of it
Fifteen days from the deadline, most of the Premier League is busy. Crystal Palace are not. And they have no interest in pretending otherwise.
Pierre Sage spelled it out on Tuesday morning. The French coach accepts that the closing stretch of a window can throw up chances. He just refuses to build a recruitment plan around that.
“As the window gets close, everyone is in a hurry, everyone can find the answer to their problems and spot opportunities,” he said.
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He used the word twice
Panic. Twice in one answer. Nobody repeats a word like that by accident.
“Sometimes you have to wait until the last minute because negotiations are tough. That is why we are waiting, but I do not think it is a good thing to sign a player at the last minute out of panic. We are here to build a strong team with a lot of certainty, so the players have to be chosen carefully and not in panic.”
Read between the lines and it says Palace have a list. Late opportunities get looked at only if they already fit a profile on it.
So where does that leave Zaha?
The timing is loaded. Talk of Wilfried Zaha returning to Selhurst Park has picked up over the past few days, and Sage said nothing about it directly.
He did not need to. The criteria come first, sentiment second.
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