Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has informed that club that he wants to leave this summer, as reported by The Times.

What's the latest news on Wilfried Zaha?

It was recently reported that Tottenham and Everton are both keen on signing Zaha this summer, and could battle for his signature in the upcoming transfer window. The 28-year-old is believed to be valued at around £40m by Palace.

The two Premier League clubs may have been handed a boost in their pursuit of Zaha, as the Ivorian international is believed to have told Palace that he wishes to move elsewhere now that the season has ended.

Has Zaha asked to leave Palace before?

He certainly has.

The winger has expressed his desire to move to another club in the last two summer transfer windows, but Palace have been unhappy with the offers that they have received for his services. 

Everton tried to sign Zaha in 2019, as they put in an offer of £70m plus Cenk Tosun and James McCarthy, but this bid was rejected by the Eagles.

Still, Zaha does not appear to have given up hope that he can eventually get his move away, leaving Palace facing a familiar transfer problem as they must now decide whether to try to keep him or let him go.

What were Zaha's stats in 2020/21?

Zaha finished the 2020/21 campaign as Palace's top scorer in the league with 11 goals to his name. He also provided two assists, and his tally of 13 goal involvements put him at the top of Palace's rankings (via WhoScored). 

Furthermore, he featured in the side's top three when it came to number of key passes (30) and successful dribbles (54).

Would Zaha's departure leave Palace's next manager with an impossible job?

It wouldn't be an appealing task.

Palace were rocked by the recent news that Eberechi Eze could be out of action until 2022 after suffering a serious achilles injury in training. He registered 10 league goal contributions in 2020/21 and will be a big miss.

If Zaha now goes, it would leave Palace's next manager with a massive job on their hands. Zaha and Eze have worked in tandem to keep the south London club comfortably above the drop zone this term, so to lose both of them prior to next season starting would be disastrous.

It would mean that the next boss would have to come in and immediately start to put a plan in place for how the team are going to trouble the opposition in the final third without two of their biggest attacking threats from this season.

This will be incredibly difficult to do, especially while the new manager is getting to know his squad, and it may leave them feeling that they are fighting an uphill battle right from the start of their tenure.