Reports today surrounding long‑term West Ham United target Axel Disasi confirm that Crystal Palace have now accelerated their push to sign the defender. Their decision to table a loan‑to‑buy offer is raising eyebrows, especially given they clearly have the funds to meet Chelsea’s £25m valuation after selling Maxence Lacroix to the Blues for around £52m.
Yet there are suggestions that the club are grappling with UEFA Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules.
It’s still baffling that Disasi wasn’t discussed as part of that deal, a move that would have made far more strategic sense for Palace.
Their proposal also casts doubt on whether West Ham were ever realistically prepared to buy Disasi outright.
Disasi looks to be ‘Palace bound
In truth, the Hammers were probably offering a similar loan‑based structure, despite seeing the Frenchman as a central pillar of our rebuild and a key figure for Nuno.
Despite West Ham being seen as a heavyweight in the Championship and selling 50,000 season tickets, Disasi wants top flight football, and has made that clear in talks between West Ham and his representatives.
Whether a loan with an option to buy if we secure promotion would have tempted him or Chelsea is uncertain. The expectation is that Disasi will choose Palace, leaving West Ham to move swiftly onto other defensive targets.
Not the right post really to make this comment, but it occurred to me that years of Sullivan’s scattergun approach to player signings might be the reason for sales of our promising academy players.
The list of those still on our books:
Todibo, Cornet (though Moyes may have had a hand in this), Füllkrug etc.
Plus those players who have downed tools for their own reasons or that of their manager’s. Wan-Bissaka for example.
Players not worth the badge because of their mercenary tendencies, players out of favour with the manager.
They’re not one of our own.
But I wonder if we’ve been forced into selling some of the better Academy players because of the wages of these others.
Players who are “one of our own”, who you just know would bleed blue with the claret if they shed blood on the field.
Most of the academy players sold will never be heard of again. We see this everything year with our so-called wonder kids. Of course we get some gems come through like Cole, Carrick, Ferdinand and more recently Rice, but we also get many who move on never to be heard of again. I’m not losing any sleep over Potts who showed last season that he wasn’t a Premier League player. If they are good enough they will be kept and of course having players in the team that have come through is popular for the fans and good for the club. Looking at the squad I fear Earthy and Scarles will be the next to go, either this season or in the summer
I see Pablo Fornals scored once and assisted twice in a Betis win against Arsenal, now he is a player
He gave the crossed hammers celebration andall !!! Pure class from pabs