BY ALEX PEWTER
A trio of Crystal Palace U21 gamers lead the listing of academy mortgage priorities as we head into the January window.
The Eagles are searching for senior appearances away from the membership for central defender Sean Grehan and extensive gamers Asher Agbinone and Franco Umeh.
Agbinone, 19. would be the identify most acquainted to Palace followers, having his Premier League debut at Nottingham Forest in October. He has been a daily on the Eagles’ bench for a lot of the season via the staff’s harm disaster, twice showing within the closing phases of matches.
His promotion to coaching with the first-team squad had been accelerated this summer time, very like that of defender Caleb Kporha. Each gamers missed important parts of the earlier season via harm, lacking out on promotion to Darren Powell’s U21 squad, however have been on the fringes of Glasner’s squad.
Left-footed Umeh, who arrived from Cork Metropolis on the finish of the January switch window in 2022, has been an unused substitute for Oliver Glasner’s staff six instances within the Premier League. The Austrian supervisor’s formation change noticed the pacey inside-right winger convert to a left-sided wing-back, an unfamiliar function to the one which gave him preliminary success after arriving in English soccer.
A hamstring harm suffered after getting back from youth worldwide obligation for the Republic of Eire has dominated him out from current competition. Nonetheless, his athletic profile and U21 performances will possible garner EFL curiosity for the 19-year-old.
Grehan’s present predicament differs from the opposite two.
He had a curtailed mortgage at Carlisle United final season in League One, returning early to Crystal Palace. This was as a result of a scarcity of alternative regardless of the struggling Cumbrians drifting in direction of relegation. He missed out on a subsequent summer time transfer as a result of harm.
A ‘veteran’ presence within the backline of the PL2 staff, the Irish U21 defender has ticked each field on the academy stage. Grehan seems to have many attributes desired in fashionable soccer in his function – it’s only a matter of discovering an surroundings to showcase that.
MAIN PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
