Crystal Palace are confident of landing Jorgen Strand Larsen from Wolverhampton Wanderers for up to £50million.
The forward’s arrival could allow Jean-Philippe Mateta to leave Palace for a team playing regularly in European competition, ideally the Champions League.
Wolves want about £40million, plus £5million in adds-on, for the Norway forward, who has scored only one goal in 21 league appearances after 14 in 35 games last season.
This month Leeds United had a £33million bid for the 25-year-old rejected and West Ham United had an offer to loan him with an obligation to buy rejected. Nottingham Forest have also been interested.
Mateta has indicated that he would like to leave Palace in search of European football
DAVID KLEIN/REUTERS
The Palace sporting director, Matt Hobbs, signed Strand Larsen, initially on loan from Celta Vigo, in 2024, when he was working in the same role at Wolves. In July the deal became permanent when certain clauses were triggered, making the deal worth £25.5million.
Strand Larsen was the subject of rejected offers from Newcastle United last summer and signed a new deal until 2030 in September.
Palace have been under pressure to strengthen regardless of Oliver Glasner voicing his unhappiness with his depth in attack. They signed Brennan Johnson, an attacking midfielder, from Tottenham Hotspur for £35million. Glasner was dealt a blow after Eddie Nketiah suffered a hamstring injury and the forward was ruled out until the middle of February.
Palace are willing to sell Mateta, and Forest have bid £35million for the France forward. Forest need a No9 as they have been without Chris Wood due to a knee injury since October. The 34-year-old scored 20 times last season but is yet to feature under Sean Dyche.