Despite Roy Hodgson saying that Wilfried Zaha was dealing with his failed summer move to Arsenal or Everton with maturity, The Times are today reporting he has sacked his agent because of it.

Arsenal were keen to land Wilfried Zaha in the summer and the player seemed more than a little keen to move across London. Whether Arsenal would have then signed Nicolas Pepe remains to be seen, but the fact is they were in for Zaha in a big way.

Not big enough for Palace, of course, who wanted £80m for him.

When Arsenal then signed Pepe, they seemed to step back from their Zaha pursuit, allowing Everton to jump in, only for the Toffees to encounter the same pricing problems.

In the end, they bought Alex Iwobi from Arsenal instead.

An article in Wednesday’s Mirror quotes Roy Hodgson as saying, “It was a simple case with Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

“When it becomes clear that this offer is on the table and he wants to go, you react with more experience than you would when you are younger.

“Then you look at things in a selfish way: ‘How many points is this going to cost and how much worse will the season be because of him going?’

“With Wilf, I don’t think anyone was thinking we definitely must block him because we want our best player still with us.

“We understood that if a really big offer comes his way and a much bigger club than Crystal Palace want him, and he is desperate to go, we are going to have to try and do some kind of deal.

“The unfortunate thing for Wilf is that offer did not come his way from the sort of club that he would want. I think Steve Parish has made that clear to Wilf and they’ve thrashed that side of it out.

“As a result it is not a major problem for me with Wilf coming back, having accepted the situation. The way he works here is just the same as it was. Since the first day he has been mature about it.”

Now, The Times [£] are reporting that Zaha has informed his agents in writing that he no longer wishes to be represented by them and the FA have been informed of a ‘dispute’ between the two parties.

Zaha has reportedly cited his agent’s relationship with the Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish as part of the reason he wishes to terminate their contract.