Eberechi Eze is closing in on a move to Tottenham Hotspur but it appears that Crystal Palace aren’t quite ready to ease their grip on the England star quite yet
Eberechi Eze is now expected to START for Crystal Palace against Chelsea despite reports of an imminent move to Tottenham Hotspur. The England star is the subject of serious interest from the North London side.
And reports over the weekend claimed that Spurs were stepping up their interest - and Eze was set to be out of action for Palace. The Eagles open up their latest Premier League campaign against Chelsea on Sunday.
But it now appears that a U-turn has been performed over Eze’s availability for Palace this weekend. According to a number of reports, the winger is now expected to be named in the starting line-up vs Chelsea after a similar claim by Palace boss Oliver Glasner.
Speaking ahead of the Chelsea game, he said: “Marc [Guehi] has trained the entire week with us, every single training session, the same with Ebs [Eze]. They’ve prepared the best way for the Chelsea game on Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been in the football business for too long, so I know that at any time of any day, things can happen. If you ask me now, I expect both Marc and Ebs to start on Sunday.”
Spurs’ pursuit of Eze is still ongoing but there is no agreement between the two clubs as of yet, while Palace continue to work on possible replacements. Leicester ’s Bilal El Khannouss has been linked over recent days, while Club Brugge's Christos Tzolis is also an option.
It was claimed that Spurs wanted to sign Eze for around £60m, while a release clause of £68.5m expired earlier this summer. Spurs boss Thomas Frank was asked about a potential move following his side’s opening day win vs Burnley, but remained tight-lipped.
He said: “We are definitely in the market. I said it before, Daniel and Johan and Vinai are working relentlessly to try to do their best to improve the squad, but we only want to improve the squad if we can get players in that can improve squad. I want to keep it like is.”
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Asked specifically about Eze, the Dane responded: “I have that nice principle that I would like to speak about the players that are in-house and all the other speculations I don't want to speak too much about that.”
Palace signed Eze from fellow capital side Queens Park Rangers back in the summer of 2020 for around £17m. He has gone on to make 167 appearances in all competitions for the club, scoring 39 goals - 14 of which came last season.