Zaha is widely reported to have gone to Gala for less money than we offered, and a hell of a lot less than the Saudis would have paid him, so it's a football decision.

Like others I'm surprised he's chosen the Turkish league ahead of the Italian one, but I'd imagine it's got more to do with the club than the league.

Galatasary are massive, the Manchester United or Real Madrid of that part of the world, are usually in Europe at one level or another, and will be trying to win their league. Lazio tend to come and go a bit, and would be considered big outsiders for the league in Italy.

I guess this is like playing for Celtic except on a higher financial level. Wilf will play every week with pressure and expectation to win at a huge club.

Now we can get on with the important business of signing Demari f***ing Gray....

It just feels a strange one all round. And can only imagine its because of a lack of offers. As many have said the Turkish league is absolute pony, and Gala hardly have a stellar record in Europe of late.

On average they get into the CL every other season, but havent made it out of the group since 13/14. So he might have a few games against top clubs, but the statistics say they'll get battered every game. (if they even make it into the group stages.

I wonder if any of it is because he knows/feels like his powers are fading. Move to Turkey and he can be the big man on campus for a couple of more years? Even at Palace he is being outshone by our 2 young stars. Maybe the ego couldn't take it.

Ultimately I never had any issue with him moving on. I just feel like he knew he was going to go, but didnt do a proper goodbye in the flesh, nor a goodbye at the expiry of his contract. And instead continued to post semi-cryptic insta's of him training at the club, why on earth would you do that if you are in discussions with another team?

And then to ask all the Gala fans to go to the airport to meet you is a pretty sh1t way for all the Palace fans to find out.

Even posting the goodbye message before flying to Istanbul would have made things 100% better.

So not gutted that he's gone, just a bit miffed about the destination, and sad that it wasn't handled better.

I saw that Zaha was still listed as a midfielder on the Palace site yesterday - He's not listed there today so they amended that sharpish.

Clearly about to sign for the Turkish side with European cup football guaranteed. Wish him very well but time not to dwell and focus upon how our team can be developed in positional areas that most crucially keep us in the Premiership...especially given that Olise is due to move to Chelsea FC.

Edited by Sportyteacher (24 Jul 2023 9.34am)

He's gone because it's almost guaranteed silverware, albeit in a less competitive league, and Champions League football.

Have no issue with that and respect it more than going to Saudi Arabia purely for money.

What I do take issue with is that our first game is now less than three weeks away and he has clearly pissed the club around all summer, massively impacting our transfer plans.

Continuing to receive treatment from the club and train at our training ground, apparently even posting pictures, has greatly misled the fan base. This isn't the behaviour of someone with the interests of the club at heart IMO.

I also take issue with the fact that we had to find out by him posting a video for the Galatasaray fans with his 'goodbye' to Palace an afterthought.

It's the most recent example of a series of disappointing and, in my view, disrespectful actions that included him throwing in a transfer request on the eve of the season and his brother publicly demanding that we let him go.

It's a pity it has ended like this but it's done now. He's no longer our player so let's move on, we won games without him at the end of last season.

The most important thing now is trying to convince Olise to turn down Chelsea somehow, as that will be a nightmare.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

I'm just glad he didn't go to the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea. Seeing him in another EPL shirt would have been hard to take.

As for his decision, I think he's been badly advised, but I support a club not a player and I think he's been allowed to procrastinate for far too long over this move. There was always a risk of this happening even if the club were quietly confident of him re-signing.

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