Former Liverpool defender Martin Kelly has responded to Jose Enrique’s claim that The Reds should sign Wilfried Zaha.
Kelly posted on Instagram in response to Enrique’s plea for Liverpool to go after the Crystal Palace forward.
“He is 29 and 1 year left so he will not be too expensive I believe for his quality,” wrote Enrique. “You will have him at Liverpool? Our front 3 will be Luis Diaz, Nunez, Salah, Jota, Firmino, Zaha. No bad e? I believe we need 1 more forward and 1 more midfielder.”
Perhaps Kelly agrees. The defender, who played with Zaha for eight years at Palace before being released this summer, simply posted a pair of eye emojis. Maybe one to watch.
This ship has surely sailed
Many Liverpool fans would no doubt agree that Zaha could be an excellent option for the club. However, Enrique’s assertion that he ‘will not be too expensive’ is debatable.
Palace have previously quoted teams incredible amounts to prise their star man away. Reports from Sky Sports in 2019 claimed that the South London side were looking for as much as £80m for Zaha.
With three more years on the clock and a year left on his deal, the current fee would be nowhere near that.
But it’s still likely that Palace would fight as hard as they can to keep him. It’s probable that they’d see getting an extra year out of him as being more valuable than whatever they could salvage for him in the late stages of this window.
As a result, he may be available on a free transfer next summer. Again, he could still be a decent option for Liverpool even then.
He showed his quality just two weeks ago at Anfield and seems to almost be getting better with age. Jurgen Klopp has also previously been named as a big fan.
But The Reds don’t tend to do business like that. If the chance to join a top club finally fell to him, Zaha would no doubt be looking for a bumper wage packet, too. It’s unlikely that Liverpool would be willing to offer that to a back-up player in his 30’s.
For all those reasons, the Zaha ship has surely sailed from a Liverpool point of view. Kelly and Enrique may disagree, but if The Reds want to bolster their forward line, there will be better options out there.
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