Mamadou Sakho to Palace Still On

On Tuesday, a deal to take Mamadou Sakho to Crystal Palace looked done, at least for one brief moment. Then it all fell apart, Palace claims via friendly journalists running up against the reality of Liverpool’s unwillingness to budge on their £30M valuation of the player.

Palace’s £25M bid—£22M up front plus £3M in add-ons—was rejected minutes after word leaked out that the deal was done, and Sakho remained a Liverpool player. Then, news leaked out that Palace were looking to Manchester City’s Eliaquim Mangala, who City were willing to sell for £23M.

Today, though, reports from a slew of London outlets contain the news that Mangala doesn’t fancy moving to Palace and that Sakho remains a player the club are very interested in despite the fact that Palace remain uncertain of whether they can afford the Liverpool man.

Hopefully they can, both for their own sake—give Sakho is a better defender than Mangala and also wants to play for them—and for the player’s, as it does not appear Liverpool are interested in lowering their asking price despite there only being hours left in the window.