If you expected Tottenham Hotspur’s protracted pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze to be completed early this week so that Eze could potentially play for Spurs against Manchester City on Saturday, prepare to be disappointed. Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glassner spoke to the press today and said he expects both Eze and Marc Guehi to play in tomorrow’s Conference League playoff match between Palace and Fredrikstad.
This isn’t exactly surprising. I mean maybe a bit in that I’m not sure anyone involved in the transfer wants to run the risk of Eze getting injured in a European qualifying match, but the desire to want to keep and play both Eze and Guehi makes sense when you consider Palace already have six players out injured, including Daichi Kamada, Eddie Nketiah, and Chiekh Doucoure. It might simply be a combination of raw numbers and the desire not to be doubly embarrassed by being unfairly drummed out of the Europa League and then losing in Conference League qualifiers to a team from Norway.
At any rate, at this point I’d take Glasner at his word and would not expect any deal to be finalized before Friday. And if that’s the case, don’t expect Eze to participate in the match at City at the weekend. All signs continue to point towards a deal getting done, especially since there are early reports that Palace have agreed terms with Leicester for Bilal El Khannouss. Until we get more info, though, I’m freely giving you permission to remove, if only to make sure you don’t cramp up.
