Crystal Palace find ‘common ground’ with player for contract – Club want ‘at least €25m’

Doing well under Patrick Vieira, Crystal Palace will have plans this summer to improve their squad and see if they can improve on their 12th place in the Premier League and perhaps push for a Conference League spot next year.

They’ll need the right personnel to do that, and a new midfielder appears to be high up on the manager’s list, with RC Lens’ Cheick Doucouré the favourite for the role.

We say this because L’Equipe claim the midfielder has found a ‘common ground’ with Crystal Palace regarding a contract at Selhurst Park.

However, it appears there is still a lot of works to be done between the two clubs, because their points of view a ‘far from being close’.

Lens don’t need to sell the midfielder, whose contract with them lasts until 2024, and if they are to let him go, they would only do so for ‘at least €25m’.

That’s a large fee, but not one that should put off Crystal Palace if they really want the Mali international, so we’ll simply have to wait and see if the two parties can get closer.