Roy Hodgson admits he is surprised
that Crystal Palace have not received
more offers for Wilfried Zaha and
hopes the club’s star player can get over
his “demons” after not moving to a
bigger club.
Last summer, Palace blocked a
£40 million move to Arsenal for the
Ivory Coast winger, who has been the
stand-out performer at Selhurst Park
since rejoining the club from Manches-
ter United in 2015.
Everton were also keen on the player
and have again shown interest with
Carlo Ancelotti being allowed to spend
heavily. Even so, the season will begin
with Zaha, 27, still in south London.
Hodgson, who marks three years as
Palace manager with today’s visit of
Southampton, has grown used to the
speculation surrounding his star man
but admitted it has affected the player
mentally, although not to the detriment
of his performances on the pitch.
“It is a little bit frustrating,” Hodgson
said. “It would be nice to have Wilf with
us without this cloud that hangs over
him.
“I’m surprised that we don’t get more
people knocking on our door who are
willing to pay a sensible price for him
because he’s such a good player.
“He finds it frustrating that we aren’t
having to turn down offers every single
day from some of the top clubs in the
country, and the world, because he
thinks he has the ability to play there
and I think so too.
“There are a lot of things being said
and a lot of people putting ideas into his
head so it is not the easiest thing to
come to terms with. The external
influences are quite great and he has to
battle a few demons there.”
Hodgson has five defenders out
injured but has been able to add
Chelsea’s Belgium striker Michy
Batshuayi on a season-long loan. The
26-year-old spent the second half of the
2018-19 season on loan at Palace,
scoring five goals in 11 matches.
Palace have already paid Queens
Park Rangers £16 million for the attack-
ing midfielder Eberechi Eze, who is
likely to start on the bench because he
is only just back from injury. The
22-year-old was a star in the
Championship and Hodgson does not
think he will have any problems in
stepping up a level.
“It is just a question of everyone
being patient and supportive because
when you are an expensive signing the
expectations can be enormous,” heDavid Moyes insists that Mark Noble is
entitled to his opinion after the West
Ham United captain criticised the
club’s decision to sell Grady Diangana.
The 22-year-old academy product
was sold last week to West Bromwich
Albion for £18 million — a sum intend-
ed to go towards the signing of James
Tarkowski, the Burnley centre back, a
prospect that now looks unlikely.
Noble, 33, responded to the news of
Diangana’s departure by saying he was
“gutted, angry and sad”. His team-mate
Jack Wilshere, 28, later wished Dianga-
na luck at “a club that respects you”.
Moyes said: “If we want open com-
munication, people should be allowed
to say what they think. The biggest
thing is that Grady was very much part
of the group. Mark Noble, more than
anyone, had probably seen him develop
Tom Roddy
said. “Your first missed pass or big
mistake and everyone wants to jump on
you, or — equally as dangerous — you
do good things, people liken you to
Lionel Messi and all of a sudden you
find it hard to live up to that.
“It will be our job to protect him from
that because he has got a pathway to
enormous success.”Noble showed ‘true solidarity’
in criticising club, says Moyes
as a young player so he was entitled to
give his opinion. We encourage the
players to speak openly but we know
what Mark means to the club and what
he thinks of the club.”
Moyes has not discussed the public
criticism with Noble and insists that the
mood within his squad is positive before
the match against Newcastle United
today. “They showed true solidarity,”
Moyes said. “The captain showed
exactly what the players feel.
“I can tell you what it felt like when I
lost Wayne Rooney, at 18, when I was at
Everton. Did we feel bad at that time?
Yes, we did, but we were building a team
that finished in Europe the majority of
seasons after that.”
Other than the permanent signing of
the midfielder Tomas Soucek, who was
on loan at the club last season, West
Ham are yet to complete any transfers
this summer but Moyes is hoping to
strengthen his defence.We need new
blood for top
four – Rodgers
Graham HillBrendan Rodgers has said that
Leicester City could again miss out
on a Champions League place unless
they improve the depth and quality
of the squad.
Leicester looked set for a top-four
finish last season but a slump in form
meant they ended up in fifth, good
enough only for the Europa League.
Rodgers says the £50 million from
Ben Chilwell’s sale to Chelsea will
help to fund a rebuild of the squad,
with a new centre half top of his
wishlist. “That last part of the season,
we had four or five players out and
that showed,” the Leicester manager
said. “The players showed huge
potential but we need to improve the
quality and depth of our squad.”Zaha is battling demons
over move, says Hodgson
John West
Zaha wants a move away from Selhurst Park but will start the season at PalaceCHLOE KNOTT/DANEHOUSE/GETTY IMAGESSport
the times | Saturday September 12 2020 2GS 11
SPORT
NOTEBOOK
Criminal trial to shine light
on PSG president and Fifa
A much-anticipated trial over
charges relating to World Cup TV
rights begins in Switzerland next
week with the potential for it to
cause intense embarrassment to
Qatar, Paris Saint-Germain, Fifa
and Uefa.
In court will be Nasser
Al-Khelaifi, the
president of PSG who
also runs Qatar’s
state-owned beIN
Sports and is a
member of Uefa’s
executive
committee. He is
charged with
inciting Jérôme
Valcke, the former
Fifa secretary
general, to commit
aggravated criminal
mismanagement.
The case has all the
ingredients for some fascinating
exchanges in court. Al-Khelaifi, 46,
a former tennis professional, has
been implicated in providing a
luxury villa in Sardinia to Valcke
linked to a World Cup broadcasting
deal. Valcke, 59, is also going on
trial next week at Switzerland’s
federal criminal court, with the
hearing expected to last eight days.
They both deny the charges.
In February, The Times revealedhow Al-Khelaifi, below, agreed to
pay Fifa a substantial sum of money
— more than one million Swiss
francs (about £790,000) — as part
of a settlement that led to the world
governing body dropping a bribery
complaint.
It follows a three-year
investigation into Valcke
being given use of the
villa rent-free in
2014 and 2015. At
the time, Valcke
oversaw Fifa’s
broadcast deals,
including an
extension of
beIN’s Middle
East rights for the
2026 and 2030
World Cups.
Swiss prosecutors
have accused Al-Khelaifi of
arranging for Valcke to use a villa
in Porto Cervo, one of the most
affluent resorts in Sardinia, without
paying rent valued at up to
€1.8 million (about £1.66 million).
Valcke was charged in February
with several counts of aggravated
criminal mismanagement and
falsification of documents.
BeIN has insisted it paid full
market value for the 2026-
rights, though Fifa awarded them
without an open tender process.No day for athletes
to get their kit on
ParalympicsGB has scrapped its
plan to hold a kitting-out day for
athletes before the Tokyo Games
next year as part of cost-cutting
measures and to reduce the risk of
coronavirus transmission.
The organisation had planned to
hold a day for Britain’s
Paralympians to pick up their kit
but they will now be sent out to
them instead, as happened before
Rio 2016. The British Olympic
Association still intends to go ahead
with its Tokyo kitting-out day
before next July’s Olympics.Commentary row
There was a furious response when
the TV commentator of the
women’s 1,500m in Ostrava made a
chuckling reference to the muscular
physiques of two of the runners.
Simon Wilcox, who it is
understood was hired to do the
commentary by the
agency Sportfive for
the broadcast which
was streamed on
World Athletics’
YouTube channel,
was criticised by
former runners
including Allison
Curbishley,
Katharine Merry
and Kara Goucher,
right. It has also not
gone down well with
World Athletics.A Savage decision
The BBC’s celebrity fixation means
that not one but two highly
opinionated former footballers will
be presenting the 606 phone-in on
Radio Five Live from this weekend,
with Robbie Savage teaming up
with Chris Sutton.
Commentator Alistair Bruce-Ball,
who was Sutton’s co-presenter last
season, has had to make way.Martyn Ziegler
Chief Sports Reporter
It follows
investiga
being
villa
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in
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be
Ea
2026
WWWorld
Swiss
hhhhave accuseNasserwhoalthe arranging for ValcThe prospect of the Premier League
emulating rugby union and selling
a stake to an investment company
looks distant — Richard Masters,
the chief executive, said the idea
“has not been discussed at all”.Stake not for sale
BBC told stars will
not miss Games
The BBC is close to agreeing a deal
to televise the 2022 Commonwealth
Games in Birmingham after
receiving assurances that the top
British track and field competitors,
such as Dina Asher-Smith, the
world 200m champion, would be
taking part in the event.
There had been fears that the
packed athletics schedule that
summer, including the World
Championships and the European
Championships, would lead to some
stars choosing to miss the
Commonwealth Games.