The Wilfried Zaha to Tottenham transfer saga is over before it even had a chance to get interesting. Despite recent reports that suggested Zaha was wavering about signing a new deal with Crystal Palace after the resignation of “Big” Sam Allardyce a few days ago, the Palace winger went ahead and pledged his future anyway, inking a new five year deal.
BREAKING: #CPFC have agreed a five-year contract extension with @wilfriedzaha!
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) May 25, 2017
More: https://t.co/Abha82qTft#LetsDoThis ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/JoY5LqCAyU
We don’t know what Zaha’s wages are but past reports suggested that it was in the area of £110k/week, almost double what he’s making now.
Of the two rumored top transfer targets for Spurs — Zaha and Everton’s Ross Barkley — Zaha was the one that probably got Spurs fans’ paces racing (at least a little bit above resting rate). It was probably always going to be a big ask, with Palace previously rejecting Spurs bids for Zaha and Palace chairman Steve Parish suggesting it would take upwards of £30m to pry him away.
There are still some questions to be answered — why stay at Palace? Don’t you want Champions League football? Why was that photo seemingly taken in front of Steve Parish’s yacht? — but those can wait for another day.
For what it’s worth, it appears Zaha was perfectly happy to stay at Palace, and fair play to him. Spurs can now move on to new targets to fill the right sided midfield position currently occupied by Moussa Sissoko. Hopefully Spurs have a plan B that isn’t someone who rhymes with “Boss Rarkley.”