Patrick Vieira’s comments shows Crystal Palace already have their ‘next’ Wilfried Zaha

Wilfried Zaha is yet to verbally agree a new deal with Crystal Palace as his current deal expires next summer and some of Europe’s best  teams trying to sign him as a free agent. Last summer Roma and Chelsea were strongly linked.

Zaha who has only once left Crystal Palace is enjoying his best spell as a Premier League player and part of that is down to the new brand of exciting footballPatrick Vieira has introduced in south London.  He is allowed the freedom to be the heart and soul of the team and that reflected in the 15 goals he bagged last season.

The Eagles are desperate to speak to Zaha and his people- Steve Parish has made advances on significantly improving the £130,000 weekly wages he’s already on but the problem is that, it’s just not about money but ambition.

Wilfried Zaha loves Crystal Palace and there are doubts he’ll ever be able to get the love he enjoys in south London anywhere else, but he is also good enough to be playing in a top six side and competing in the Champions League. Beyond his skill is an underlying desire to be better every day. He’s one of the players who just never really know when they are beaten and that trait is priceless in football especially at an era when footballers get satisfied with little success.

Zaha is allowed to speak to other clubs in January and there is nothing Palace can do about it but hope that Selhurst can convince him or maybe no one else is able to present the 30-year-old with an exciting and challenging project. The good thing is that Crystal Palace have moved on from just being a one man team, exciting players like Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise have proven that given equal opportunity they are more than capable of filling his boots.

Even manager Patrick Vieira confirmed Eze who has been breathtaking this season can learn from Wilf and continue to be better.

The Crystal Palace boss said: “It’s about managing expectations from outside and you can try to overplay to show how good you are. The messages from Wilfried, myself or ex players is to play and try to do the right things for his development.

“Sometimes it sounds easy but it’s the most difficult thing to do. He has some group of players around him that can make him understand his talent has to go through the collective. That is the message I sent to him and the players.”

There are reports that the young Crystal Palace midfielder is in Gareth Southgate’s 55-man squad for the World Cup and Vieira insists he can be the wild card even though the final call lies on the England manager.

As the months fly by the talks about Zaha’s contract will intensity but Palace are more than just Wilfried Zaha and they will fight to keep him, but if he was to leave, the talents there are more than capable to hold their own.