Hleb's Sirush
Established Member
Not sure. However, the worth for CP and the actual worth of Zaha in the market are highly diverse.
Wan Bissaka should be of equal worth to Zaha imo as he's like 5-6 years younger. That's huge and for his age he's absolutely topclass.
Think 50m + certain surplus players is exactly what is fair in the current market, but I am not critizicing CP for wanting more, as I said, Zaha's worth to them is higher than it is in general terms.
You are right there is big difference between what he is worth to Palace and his market value. He is worth easily 100m or close to priceless to them. Without him relegation is a serious possibility.
But I think even his market value is much higher than people think. Mahrez was a good example from @truth_hurts . In this window bog standard players are going for 40m. And I really mean bog standard. Newcastle signed a striker from Hoffenheim for that price. They sold perez for 30m. Any player remotely above average, their price seems to starts at 40-50m. Pulisic went for 60m. Not to mention a 28 yr old striker (Griezmann) went for over 100m. Granted that Griezmann had achieved a lot including on the international stage. Still I don't think he is that much of a game changer to be worth that price at his age. Still it shows that prices have gone out of control. 100m is the old 50m. 70m is 35m
When I try to gauge market value for a player I try to ask myself. Is this player the best in their position in their league? One of the best? Or just about par for their position? In Zaha's case, my opinion is he is one of the best players in his position in this league. The best player in that position for me was Hazard. His price has been mentioned as an argument Zaha shouldn't cost so much. Hazard went for 100m (with presumably easy to achieve add ons) when he only had 12 months left on his contract, he is also 2 years older than Zaha. If hazard had a few years on his contract it isn't unreasonable to think he would have gone for about 150m.
Would it be crazy to think then that Zaha is worth half the price of Hazard? So about 70m, considering he is on a very long contract. As crazy at that sounds, to me in this market Zaha is worth about 70m, taking into consideration all of these things. However we might be able to get him for less, using the fact he desperately wants to leave and no genuine competition for him.