Crystal Palace currently ‘refusing’ to let player go – Have ‘placed condition’ for departure

Earlier on Monday, we covered the latest (at that time) from France regarding AS Saint-Etienne’s interest in signing Jean-Philippe Mateta.

While not directly owned by Crystal Palace, the player is there on loan from Mainz 05 in Germany, but his lack of game time up until very recently had made him a target for the Ligue 1 side.

However, him scoring in two of his last three games was said to have placed some doubts in the minds of those in charge of the Eagles, and they weren’t all that sure that letting him go was a good idea.

Fast forward to this afternoon, and Le10 Sport claim that one of the reasons why this whole thing is being held up is the fact that Crystal Palace have ‘placed the condition’ that they want to ‘find the successor’ first before letting him go.

That’s why they are ‘refusing’ to let Mateta leave until that’s happened.

It appears that the Eagles ‘don’t want to hand any favours’ to the Ligue 1 side, but if Crystal Palace find a new player for Patrick Vieira, then a deal for the former Lyon man could be ‘imminent’.