Roy Hodgson says Crystal Palace are in desperate need of new signings, urging chairman Steve Parish and sporting director Dougie Freedman into action after losing five key players.
Palace have lost star player Wilfried Zaha on a free this summer, along with stalwarts James McArthur and Luka Milivojevic along with other senior players, but have so far brought in just Jefferson Lerma. There are also significant worries Michael Olise could leave.
Standard Sport understands Palace are closing in on a deal worth around £26million to sign 19-year-old Flamengo forward Matheus Franca, who had been linked with Chelsea, but Hodgson has serious concerns over the strength of his squad.
Hodgson calling for transfers at Palace: "We’ve lost five senior players from last season and brought one in – Jefferson Lerma; he’s good and we’re happy to have him in – but there is still that hole of five senior players in the squad, two of whom were two of the real stars of the team.
He added: "There’s a bit of work for the chairman and sporting director to do between now and the end of August, because the team we put out today was in our opinion, at this moment in time, our best team, but we don’t have the strength behind that team that we had last year.
