Crystal Palace: Sigurdsson - WHY?

Article by e-Crystal Palace Correspondent Paul Spicer

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After what seems like an eternity, it appears that Crystal Palace are finally dipping their toe into the transfer market with a view to signing Campbell and Sigurdsson. I for one have an axe to grind over the potential signing of Sigurdssen, as I can’t really see how he will drastically improve our squad as other positions surely need to take priority. Campbell at anywhere between 650,000 – 1million is an absolute steal, I have no qualms that he will improve our front line and I think this is fantastic business on behalf of our manager and board.

My problem with Sigurdsson is that looking at the Palace squad our strength and competition for places is already abundant in central midfield or the free role behind the striker. With Pullis preferring to deploy 2 holding midfielders namely Jedinak and Ledley (although I would prefer Williams playing along side Jedinak due to his energy) we still have Chamakh and Gayle to fill the free role behind the main striker so why do we need Sigurdsson? Up front we have options with Murray and hopefully Campbell with Gayle and Chamakh also capable of stepping in. On top of this we have Dobbie hitting form and the youngster Boateng, Guedioura, Bannan, and O’Keefe to fill any void. Sigardsson is certainly not a winger and granted although a good attacking midfield player and marginally better than perhaps what we have, is it really worth spending 8 million on him when we have weaker areas in the team.

I hear the Palace faithful moaning at me already but let’s be realistic here. Currently we only have two recognised wide players in Bollasi and Puncheon. If one of these players especially Bollasi gets injured we have no pace down the wings. If Zaha were to be signed for a cut price fee I can assure you Bollassi would sign a new long term contract so that’s worth looking into as well, we will get a two for one so to speak. Also Nathan Redmond of Norwich would be a good signing if Zaha did not want to return.

Another major area of weakness is our defence. Yes I hear you cry we had one of the best defensive records second half of last season, blah blah blah, but again if one of our back four gets injured we have no cover. For me Caulker would be the ultimate signing and a platform on which to build. If I were Pullis all my efforts would be channelled into signing Caulker or someone of a similar ilk. Let’s not forget we also have no recognised left back at the club which is my biggest concern. Yes Ward can play there but again if he gets injured we have nothing.

So to sum up, yes Sigurdsson might improve our squad but not to the degree that most are hoping. We need a centre half and left back desperately, quickly followed by a winger, hopefully Zaha, then a holding midfielder and finally if we have any spare cash then chuck that at Sigurdsson.

All views welcome especially realistic ones on the areas we need to strengthen as a priority.

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