After signing goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from Marseille, Crystal Palace made their second significant move in the summer transfer window last week by acquiring Newcastle midfielder Andros Townsend for £13 million. The 24-year-old put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the Eagles, and should add further creativity to a Palace midfield that already contains the likes of Yannick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha and Yohan Cabaye.
Speaking to the club’s official website, Townsend outlined his reasons for making the move to Selhurst Park just two months after dropping into the Championship with the relegated Magpies:
“I’m extremely delighted. I had chats with the manager and chairman before I signed and I’m pleased to a part of Crystal Palace’s future… It was a pretty easy decision to choose Crystal Palace because of the direction they’re heading. They play a system that suits wingers and you only need to look at Wilfried Zaha, Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon to see how they’ve excelled and how influential they are for Palace. I want to be a part of that and help this club reach its potential.”
The History
Townsend joined the Tottenham Hotspur academy at the age of eight, but was sent out on several loan spells during his time with the club. In March 2009, he made his professional debut for Yeovil Town against MK Dons, while the following season, Townsend spent loan spells at League One sides Leyton Orient and MK Dons, making 33 appearances in total, scoring four goals and registering three assists.
He then headed to Ipswich Town at the start of the 2010/11 campaign for what was intended to be a season-long loan, but after playing in only 16 matches for the Tractor Boys, scoring once and providing two assists, he was recalled by then Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp in December 2010.
The winger marked his senior Tottenham debut with a goal and a man of the match performance against Charlton Athletic in an FA Cup tie in January 2011, but Townsend was shortly after farmed out on loan once more, first to Watford, and then to Millwall, making 14 appearances in total, scoring twice and garnering three assists.
While Townsend did feature for Spurs over the following two seasons, he never really established himself as a regular starter, and spent further loan spells with Leeds United and Birmingham City in the Championship and QPR in the Premier League, where he scored twice and provided two assists in 12 league appearances.
In total, Townsend made 50 Premier League appearances for Tottenham, scoring three goals and registering four assists, before making the move to Newcastle in January this year for a fee of around £12 million in search of regular first-team football. He would prove to be a key figure in Newcastle’s battle to avoid relegation, scoring four goals and providing two assists in 13 matches for the Magpies, but ultimately the club failed to avoid the drop.
Townsend represented England at every level from Under 16-21 and made his senior debut against Montenegro in October 2013, scoring in a 4-1 win. He has earned 10 international caps thus far, scoring three goals, although he was left out of Roy Hodgson’s 23-man squad for Euro 2016.
The Prospects
In spite of the Magpies’ relegation, Townsend’s move to Selhurst Park comes as something of a surprise. After years of trying to establish himself as a first-choice option at the Lane, he had finally nailed down a regular role on Tyneside only to jump ship and head back to London with Palace.
Certainly, that short stint at St James’ at least afforded us a chance to assess the winger’s potential if handed secure pitch time.
Townsend’s ability to take on defenders and cut in from the right flank, firing shots on goal with his left foot, should see him handed a role on the right of Pardew’s 4-2-3-1 set-up next time out.
This could result in Zaha – who was voted the club’s Player of the Year award last season – being shifted over to the left, which could see Yannick Bolasie stationed in a central support role behind a lone striker.
Such a scenario looks ominous for the likes of Jason Puncheon and Bakary Sako, with Yohan Cabaye and James McArthur likely to be the first-choice pairing in central midfield. The fact that Zaha, Puncheon and Sako all managed just two goals each last term highlights why Townsend has been brought in, with the Eagles in desperate need for more firepower in the final third.
Bolasie and Cabaye managed five goals apiece last season, making them the club’s joint-top scorers, but while the latter has some appeal should he remain the first-choice penalty taker, he’s perhaps more suited as an asset in daily Fantasy offerings such as DraftKings.
Analysing his statistics at Newcastle in the second part of last term, Townsend averaged a shot every 47.4 minutes, which was actually inferior to Sako (33.3), Bolasie (38.4) and Cabaye (41.7), although Puncheon and Zaha trailed all four players, managing a shot every 50.4 and 81.5 minutes respectively. Nonetheless, his conversion rate of 16.7% underlines the new boy’s eye for goal as Pardew looks to improve a side that scored just 39 times last season, the third-lowest tally in the top-flight.
In terms of creativity, Townsend produced a key pass every 43.8 minutes for Newcastle last term, which was better than any of the Palace midfielders, with Puncheon (44.5) the next best, while Zaha and Bolasie only created a scoring chance every 60.9 and 90.3 minutes respectively, suggesting Townsend should have a clear edge when it comes to assist potential.
Given that fact Bolasie was priced at 6.5 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) last season, we can expect a similar price for Townsend. Should he establish himself as a first-choice wide man as expected, that could represent terrific value for Fantasy managers, particularly bearing in mind Palace’s favourable start (WBA, tot, BOU, mid, STO) to the campaign, with only the trip to White Hart Lane in Gameweek 2 looking a difficult match-up.
Finding value in the mid-price bracket was crucial to any successful Fantasy campaign last season, and with Palace being
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