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Crystal Palace are eyeing up a move for Genoa striker Christian Kouame, who has been attracting interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs as a result of his fine performances this season, as reported by Calciomercato.
What’s the word, then?
The Eagles were struggling to find a striker before the end of January, and have been forced to play wingers Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend up front together for large chunks of the current campaign.
The deadline day signing of Michy Batshuayi, coupled with the return to fitness of Christian Benteke, has eased those problems somewhat, but neither of the pair have netted for Crystal Palace so far this season.
Juventus, Napoli and Roma are all taking a look at the 21-year-old Kouame, whilst Palace are also keeping tabs on the situation despite Genoa wanting around €25m for his services.
The end for Benteke?
The big Belgian striker hasn’t scored a goal from open play for Palace since January 2018 when he netted against West Ham, which is a seriously bad stat which doesn’t reflect positively on the 28-year-old by any means.
It also seems unlikely that Batshuayi’s move will be made permanent as Chelsea were reportedly looking to recoup at least £40m for the forward – one would assume that Palace won’t want to go anywhere near that figure.
If that is to be the case, Palace will need to be in the market yet again for a striker in the summer. Kouame can offer the physical presence of Benteke, but has proven this season that he can be more influential than the former Aston Villa man in terms of end product.
Kouame has four goals and four assists in Serie A, showing that he can score goals and make them, whilst the fact that the Ivorian is just 21 years of age suggests he has lots of room for improvement on those figures.
Contrastingly, Benteke is only set to decline from here on in, and should be moved on whilst Palace can still recoup a bit of money for him.
