In what proved to be his last season in charge at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson’s final move in the transfer market was to snap up Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace. The highly-rated youngster signed for the champions in a £15m deal back in January, before spending the rest of the 2012/13 campaign on loan at Selhurst Park:

Having dazzled in Monday’s Championship Play-Off final win over Watford at Wembley, the fleet-footed 20-year-old now heads to United on a five-and-a-half year contract to ply his trade under new boss, David Moyes. Prior to his decision to step down, Ferguson heaped praise on Zaha earlier this year after confirming the winger’s acquisition:

“We are signing a player of potential. We always feel we develop players well. We have proved that many times. We hope the boy enjoys coming here, when he comes in the summer.”

The Statistics

Born in the Ivory Coast, Zaha moved to London at the age of four and joined Palace’s youth set-up just five years later. He made his debut as a 17-year-old in April 2010 before nailing down a regular role at the London club over the next three seasons and, as the statistics show, he’s improving with every passing year.

His first term as a regular saw Zaha produce a single goal and five assists from 41 appearances, before delivering six goals and seven assists in 2011/12. This time round, he stepped up again, with a telling contribution of six goals and eight assists in 43 league matches in addition to a couple of goals and assist in the club’s successful Play-Off bid.

Zaha has represented England Under 19s a couple of times and turned out for the Under 21 side on seven occasions before making his debut for the senior side in a friendly against Sweden last November.

The Prospects

Much depends on David Moyes’ assessment of the United first-team squad. Off the field, the former Everton manager has already began an overhaul of the club’s backroom staff and certainly won’t shirk from any major decisions. With Nani, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Danny Welbeck all affording Moyes options on the right, though, it’s fair to say Zaha may find regular game time hard to come by.

Essentially, Zaha’s prospects as a Fantasy force look likely to be boosted by a loan move. In recent times at Goodison, Moyes has farmed out the likes of Seamus Coleman and Ross Barkley in order to afford them first-team experience and with Ian Holloway already admitting he’s keen to have him for another season at Palace, a switch back to Selhurst Park would allow him time to find his top-flight feet amongst more familiar surrounds.

While Palace chairman Steve Parish is far from optimistic over the club’s chances of reacquiring the winger for the 2013/14 campaign, he was quick to leave the option open:

“Wilfried deserves his chance to go to Manchester United with a view to making it there. I think he is good enough and will figure in their first team. We are certainly not thinking about loaning him back. We will be planning for life without him. If he does get loaned out to another Premier League club then obviously we would want to be in the mix.”

Versatile enough to operate up front, Zaha looks likely to be classified as a midfielder across the Fantasy games, though his initial price tag could be critical when assessing his prospects. If he nails down a regular role at United he has the potential to be an absolute bargain but, conversely, a “United midfield” starting price could well prove too costly if he moves out on loan.

Intriguingly, Nick Powell was handed a 5.0 starting price in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) upon arriving from Crewe last summer, while the likes of Ryan Giggs began the season at 6.5. Given the fanfare surrounding Zaha’s arrival, though, anything less than 6.0 would surprise and could force us to bypass his undoubted abilities as we scour the budget bracket for better value.

Further Reference

Wilfried Zaha Wikipedia
Wilfried Zaha Statistics
Wilfried Zaha YouTube