Former Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock has shared a story which has shown just how bad Steve Parish truly is at recruitment.
It’s no secret that Steve Parish is no genius when it comes to transfer recruitment at Selhurst Park.
Now, while we’ve seen Dougie Freedman come in to take that burden, there are still some horror stories from recruitment over the years.
Parish held a significant amount of power in the past over recruitment and now it’s been revealed by Neil Warnock that he actually turned down the chance to sign a player who has gone on to become a world-beater.
The price Crystal Palace could’ve signed him for is a seriously upsetting fact. Let’s take a look at what happened…
READ MORE: Who is Dougie Freedman? The Crystal Palace Sporting Director linked with Manchester United switch
Neil Warnock shared who Crystal Palace could’ve signed for £3m
Speaking on Express FM last year, Warnock told the story of how he almost ended up getting Virgil Van Djik to sign for Palace.
He explained how Van Djik was scouted and only for Parish and the data recruitment analysts to stop the deal from progressing, labelling the now legendary Premier League defender as too slow.
The fee Warnock mentioned that they would’ve had to pay was £3m, which even back in 2014 would’ve been an absolute steal.
This of course is pretty laughable now, after the career he’s had, and even though he left his eventual new club Southampton for Liverpool, Palace could’ve made a £72m profit on him.
This just goes to show how important Freedman is at Palace and could explain the desire to recruit young prospects over the past few years.
Dougie Freedman has changed the recruitment
While this story is shocking, it’s important to remember that it was a decade ago, and a lot has now changed at Copers Cope.
Freedman is the main difference as he’s revolutionised recruitment and importantly seems to have control ahead of Glasner.
We’ve seen recently young talents being brought in ahead of ageing players, which could suggest Palace remain keen to avoid a repeat of rejecting a player who goes on to become world-class.
This summer with potentially so many big sales taking place, Freedman will have to be at his best to rebuild the squad.
The post Steve Parish rejected chance to sign £3m player for Crystal Palace in 2014, he is now a global superstar - opinion appeared first on We are Palace.