Crystal Palace reject Everton’s opening offer for Zaha

Crystal Palace have turned down Everton’s opening offer of £52m for wantaway winger Wilfried Zaha, claims The Guardian.

Everton have emerged as the frontrunners to sign Zaha this summer now that Arsenal are closing in on a club-record deal for Lille star Nicolas Pepe.

It was initially reported Everton would include striker Cenk Tosun in a proposed deal to sign Zaha but their opening offer was cash only.

Nevertheless, it has fallen well short of Palace’s £80m valuation of Zaha and the Eagles are adamant they are under no pressure to sell their star asset.

Palace made Zaha the best-paid player in the club’s history with a new long-term deal last summer and it still has four years remaining.

Zaha is desperate to leave Palace this summer and is open to joining Everton despite the fact they cannot offer European football next term.

Everton’s club-transfer record stands at £45m when they signed Gylfi Sigurdsson from Swansea in August 2017 and they are willing to eclipse that fee for Zaha.

The former Manchester United winger has developed into arguably the best attacker outside the Premier League’s top-six in the last two years.

Zaha finished last season with 10 goals in a Premier League campaign for the first time in his career.

Furthermore, only Eden Hazard (446) has completed more dribbles than Zaha (374) in the Premier League since August 2016.