Wilfried Zaha wants to leave Crystal Palace, says Roy Hodgson: ‘Watch this space’

The forward still has three years left on his current Palace deal and they last year suggested it would take £100m to prise him away from the club

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson dealt a blow to fans ahead of the close-season by revealing star attacker Wilf Zaha wants to leave the club.

The Ivorian international has been at Selhurst Park for over five years and now looks set to depart, having previously been linked with the likes of Arsenal and Bayern Munich.

At age 27 it remains to be seen if that calibre of club are still interested in splashing out a large fee on him, particularly this summer with the economic uncertainty in the sport, after a campaign in which Zaha scored four goals and claimed five assists for a Palace side which failed to inspire.

Speaking post-match after the final day, Hodgson told TalkSport’s Alex Crook to “watch this space” regarding Zaha’s probable exit after acknowledging the forward has “made it clear” he sees his future away from the club.

The forward still has three years left on his current Palace deal and they last year suggested it would take £100m to prise him away from the club.

Hodgson’s side wrapped up the campaign with seven straight defeats and a final-day draw, dropping to 14th place in the process.

Zaha himself netted just once between mid-December and the end of the season, a long-range strike in a defeat to Chelsea.

He was reported to have handed in a transfer request last summer in a bid to force a move away, but a bid didn’t materialise to tempt Palace to sell.

In an apparent move to boost his chances of a departure, Zaha changed agents in January and his priority for the weeks ahead will clearly be to secure a move away.

Zaha was the player to feature for the most minutes in the Premier League this season for Palace and the only member of the squad under 28 years of age to play 1,100 minutes or more, pointing to the level of rebuild which might be required in the squad with the potential fee brought in for the No 11.