Fenerbahce midfielder Ozan Tufan was on the brink of joining Premier League side Crystal Palace in 2018, according to a report on Turkish Football.
The 24-year-old has recently been linked with Palace again in recent weeks but his agent has revealed that he could have been an Eagles player in 2018.
As stated in the report, Utku Cenikli, Tufan’s agent, revealed:
We had agreed terms with Crystal Palace. We brought his plane ticket and were ready to go.
It was transfer deadline day, we were watching the Palace game together and was going to fly to London afterward.
Sakho got injured during the game and we got a message in the morning from Palace that the move was off because they had to sign a striker.
And that is when they brought in Sorloth.
READ CRYSTAL PALACE VERDICT
Tufan recently signed a contract extension with Fenerbahce that runs until the summer of 2023.
The central midfielder has got his name on the scoresheet twice this season in the Turkish Super Lig, whilst also providing five assists in his 21 appearances (Transfermarkt).
We believe that he could be an upgrade on current Palace midfielders James McArthur and Cheikhou Kouyate, who both have weaker attacking statistics than the Turk this season.
Additionally, opting to sign Alexander Sorloth didn’t turn out too well for Palace as the Norway international failed to score a single league goal for the Eagles and now, because Tufan has a new deal with the Turkish club, it could prove to be more difficult to convince him to make the switch to England.
