Crystal Palace have reportedly increased Wilfried Zaha’s already-ridiculous price tag from £80m to £100m in an attempt to ward off Arsenal but they needn’t have bothered.

Arsenal have been interested in signing Wilfried Zaha since before his ill-fated move to Manchester United in 2013 when he cost just £10.58m.

The player is reportedly set on joining his ‘boyhood club‘ but Crystal Palace don’t want to sell another of their stars after agreeing to let Aaron Wan-Bissaka leave for United.

Zaha has been priced at around £80m all summer, a price that is twice what Arsenal have to spend in this window. Why Palace felt the need to increase his price further is perhaps something only they can explain. When you’ve got little to spend, £80m could well be £300m.

But increase his price they have according to the Mail on Sunday:

On Saturday, the Daily Mail reported in an exclusive that Zaha “has told Crystal Palace he wants to join Arsenal this summer and urged them to reach an agreement with the club he supported as a boy.”

It’s hard to see how there can be any middle ground here when you have one club using a vast overestimate to price their player and another only able to afford cast-offs and freebies.

Palace, to their credit, have been very clear that they will only allow one of Wan-Bissaka and Zaha to leave, so perhaps Arsenal should have pulled their finger out and moved faster than United. Just a thought.

Under contract until 2023, the 26-year-old scored 10 and assisted 10 in the Premier League last season.