Crystal Palace exile performing 'excellently' with loan club after manager's 'fantastic' admission

A Crystal Palace loan exile is impressing with his new club after moving away from Selhurst Park in the January transfer window. The Eagles built a strong squad for this season, keeping hold of the likes of Marc Guehi and Michael Olise, while adding players like Maxence Lacroix.

But increased competition makes life difficult for some players, and those who are not playing are often left looking for a loan exit.

That was the case for Jeffrey Schlupp, who joined Celtic on loan after eight years at Selhurst Park, racking up 220 league appearances. The wing-back is now 32 years of age, and he wants to be playing regular football in the final years of his career.

He is finding that with loan club Celtic, making four league appearances so far, and also featuring in the Champions League, with the Hoops narrowly missing out on progression to the Round of 16 to Bayern Munich.

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has taken note of Schlupp’s form, and speaking on Sky Sports’ coverage of Celtic’s win over Aberdeen on Wednesday night, He said: “I have liked the look of Jeffrey Schlupp since he has come in at Celtic. He did really well in Munich against his old pal, Michael Olise. Played him excellently. He has slotted in really, really well. It hasn’t taken him long.”

Rodgers on Schlupp permanent deal

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was asked about the possibility of signing Schlupp permanently recently. He told The National: "I'd obviously spoken to Jeff in the summer with an idea of bringing him here then and then it worked out that we couldn't get him here. There was a possibility that Kieran Tierney was coming back so we left it late. But obviously when that was the case he definitely wasn't able to come back then Jeff was my first port of call really.

"You can see he has fantastic attributes, his physicality in the game. I thought he was brilliant the other night having to get through the game like he did. He was absolutely superb in the game. He settled in really well. He's only been here a few weeks but he's settling into the rhythm of the team which takes a bit of time.

"Just getting the feel for a team that's having the ball a lot of the time and the movement patterns within that. But also defensively he was really strong against his former teammate. So yeah, I was so pleased for Jeff. He's a good guy. He's come here, fit in very easily and very well."

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