Roy Hodgson has told the Premier League big boys not to waste their time by trying to sign Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha during the January transfer window.
Zaha is enjoying another impressive season for relegation-battlers Palace, leading the club’s revival under Hodgson since returning from injury.
The Ivory Coast international, who returned to Selhurst Park in 2015 after an unsuccessful spell at Manchester United, has been linked with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
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But Hodgson says he has been told by chairman Steve Parish that Zaha will not be sold this month as Palace look to survive relegation after a catastrophic start to the campaign.
‘People who make offers for Wilfried Zaha are basically wasting their time,’ Hodgson said ahead of Palace’s FA Cup clash with Brighton. ‘I’m certainly not expecting it.
‘I have it on very clear authority from the chairman and owners of the club that they have no interest in selling Wilfried Zaha – quite the opposite.
‘Our job at the moment is to keep all of the players we’ve got, who’ve been doing reasonably well for us in the past few weeks, to keep all of them, keep them fit, add to it, make ourselves stronger.
‘I would advise people thinking of making offers to save it, because they’re going to be turned away, and might just be wasting the price of a phone call.’
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Hodgson will be without a number of key players for the trip to Brighton on Monday, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Joel Ward and Mamadou Sakho joining Scott Dann and Jason Puncheon in the treatment room.
‘I don’t know how many changes I would have made without these injuries, the squad is thin on the ground,’ former England boss Hodgson added.
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‘We’ll have a strong, competitive team versus Brighton. We’re aware it’s a derby game and we’ll treat it accordingly. We’ll put out a team that we think is right.
‘I’ve only experienced one game of this derby. This rivalry developed while I was working out of the country, not in my earlier years as a Crystal Palace supporter.
‘Both sides share the fans’ passion and their enthusiasm, this is one of the big games of the year.’
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