Palace Linked to French Left-Back

Crystal Palace fans asked for a left-back for Christmas and now they may be about to get their present as French newspaper L’Équipe are reporting that the club are in advanced negotiations with Lille player Pape Souaré.

Arriving at the club at the turn of the year, Alan Pardew would have made a left-back one of the positions he wanted to fill in this transfer window with Joel Ward covering that position since the club was left with no alternatives after departures of Jonathan Parr and Dean Moxey in the summer.

The 24-year-old has made 22 appearances for the French outfit this season, over a number of competitions including the Coupe de la Ligue, Europa League and Champions League qualification at the start of the season; over those games he hasn’t contributed anything on the attacking aspect of the game in terms of goals and assists but has made a number of good defensive performances this season.

Currently at the African Cup of Nations with his home nation Senegal, the defender featured in their 2-1 win over Kwesi Appiah’s Ghana in the first game of the group stages.

Reports suggest that the two parties are in talks over a three-and-a-half year contract with the fee involved being close to £3.4m.

Souaré is the second left-back that the Eagles have been linked to in this transfer window with Neil Taylor looking like the most favourable option from Swansea City but the two clubs are not yet understood to have agreed a fee for the player.

Unfortunately for one fan, it doesn’t look like Crystal Palace will be looking at signing Richard Dunne this window – putting the end to his dream phrase.