Crystal Palace confirm whether £35m winger can feature against Newcastle United after announcing new signing
Crystal Palace are hoping to return to winning ways in the Premier League after their rapid start to the campaign has started to slow down.
The Eagles could only manage a 1-1 draw with Fulham last night, and the early promise Oliver Glasner's side showed at the start of the season has subsided.
However, Palace have moved quickly to add quality to their ranks, signing Brennan Johnson from Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record fee of £35 million, which seems like an absolute steal to us, especially given that we paid £55 million for Anthony Elanga.
Crystal Palace were up against the clock today, having already agreed the bulk of the transfer in December, the deal didn't go through on 1st January, and the finishing touches had to be put on the deal today, but for Johnson to be eligible to face Newcastle on Sunday, the paperwork had to be done by 12 pm today.
Crystal Palace confirm Brennan Johnson is eligible to feature at St James' Park
Fortunately for Palace, all the formalities were completed in time, and the club even confirmed via their official site that Johnson could make his debut at St James' Park on Sunday.
“Johnson will be eligible to make his Palace debut against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Sunday afternoon.”
Being eligible and actually making his debut are two separate things, of course, and we hope that they give the form Nottingham Forest winger some time to settle in before throwing him into a match.
Brennan Johnson could be a catalyst for Crystal Palace
Johnson did notch an assist for Tottenham at St James' Park last season as Spurs were beaten 2-1 by the Toon.
Whether one man can make that much of an instant difference to Palace's fortunes remains to be seen, but I personally rate Johnson and feel that he could be quite the threat if he plays on Sunday.
Newcastle could do with an injection of something up front to spur them on. You could argue that Yoane Wissa's return from injury has done that, and with two starts and two goals to his name, he's certainly doing something. But we expect that Nick Woltemade will be in the starting lineup on Sunday.
