Alan Pardew Slaps A £10 Million Price-Tag On Striker’s Shoulders
According to a report in The Sun, Bournemouth have been put off in their pursuit of Crystal Palace striker Dwight Gayle, after Alan Pardew placed a £10 million valuation on the striker’s head.
Whilst the Cherries were supposedly more than happy to part with £6 million for the former Peterborough man, the paper claims that Pardew was keen to take Callum Wilson as part of the deal, which unsurprisingly, was met with a flat denial by Eddie Howe after the season his frontman has had.
Although Gayle has struggled to bed in well under Pardew’s management, there is no doubt that he is capable of scoring regularly at Premier League level if given the correct opportunities, making him a valuable commodity in any market and ensuring that the club will not let him move on cheaply, if indeed he is to leave at all.
It had looked as though Gayle was set to become a pivotal member of the first-team when Pardew first arrived in SE25, following a penalty in a home victory over Tottenham, followed by a massive brace away at Burnley, where his second goal of the afternoon secured a huge come-from-behind win over Sean Dyche’s men in the snow and fleet.
Towards the end of the season though, Dwight looked to be being frozen out of the squad by Pardew ahead of an imminent summer departure, without even being given a place on the bench for most of our final run of league games in April or May.
Now, it seems as though, whilst the club remain willing to let him leave if there is a team serious enough about him to make a bid, he will be far from going on the cheap, it looks as if Pardew and the board will negotiate hard with any interested party.
It makes sense in many ways, with an almost cast-iron guarantee that if he is to play against us for someone else next season, he is bound to score a big goal or two, such is his habit of finding the back of the net at the most dramatic of moments.
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