Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson expecting January interest in Wilfried Zaha amid Arsenal links
Winger likely to receive further attention in the New Year after an impressive run of form post-knee injury.
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson is expecting to receive interest in rumoured Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur target Wilfried Zaha during the forthcoming January transfer window.
The 25-year-old winger has continued to thrive since returning from a knee injury sustained on the opening day of the season last month, notching three goals in five appearances including the winner in a shock home defeat of defending Premier League champions Chelsea and a 96th-minute equaliser against West Ham United.
Top scorer Zaha's absence coincided with relegation candidates Palace, for whom he re-signed permanently in 2015 after a failed stint with Manchester United and an indifferent loan spell at Cardiff City, suffering the ignominy of becoming the first team in Football League history to lose their first seven matches without scoring.
Such impressive exploits have not gone unnoticed, with The Sun reporting earlier in November that Arsenal were targeting the Ivory Coast international - Palace's player of the year in 2016-17 - as a potential replacement for contract rebel Alexis Sanchez and were ready to submit an offer worth £35m ($46.6m).
North London rivals Tottenham and Manchester City were said to have made contact with his representatives earlier this year, although academy product Zaha later committed his future to Palace by putting pen to paper on a lucrative new five-year contract believed to have brought him level with top earner Christian Benteke on improved wages of approximately £110,000-a-week.
The Eagles are obviously unlikely to want to sell arguably their most influential performer for a second time in the New Year, particularly given the significant threat of relegation, although Hodgson concedes that there are other players in their current ranks that could be moved on for the right price.
"You can't ever dismiss interest in any of your players," he told reporters at a press conference held before Saturday's (25 November) visit of Stoke City to Selhurst Park, per the Evening Standard.
"Wilf Zaha is an obvious name, but there are other players that I wouldn't be surprised if there were other clubs interested in, and we have to be prepared for that going into January.
"If offers come along for players who are doing well for us and we are not particularly anxious to lose them, then we will have to make decisions on what offers are to be turned down and what could be accepted."
