‘Holding is player who has interested us for a while’

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson believes the club’s best business in the transfer window has been keeping hold of their key men.

The Eagles saw their long-time talisman Wilfried Zaha move to Galatasaray earlier this summer, but they were able to keep hold of Michael Olise, who turned down the chance to join Chelsea and instead opted to sign a new four-year deal at Selhurst Park.

In his pre-match news conference for Sunday’s game against Wolves, Hodgson said: “The good thing for us in this transfer window is we kept the team I was hoping to work with again. At one stage, with Michael Olise, that looked like it might not be possible.

“For me, the best thing about this transfer window is that we still have the team I came here to work with.”

Hodgson feels keeping his key players will give him every chance possible of “improving” the side again this season.

Palace are still being linked with a move for Arsenal defender Rob Holding ahead of the transfer deadline this evening.

Hodgson has not written the deal off yet: “Steve Parish (chairman) and Doug Freedman (sporting director) are still working at this moment to see if we can bring in players to improve the team.

“Rob Holding is player who has interested us for a while and Doug Freedman knows this very well. We are working on the basis perhaps that you can’t have too many good-quality players in your squad.

“So if he was available, and it was a deal which was do-able for the club, then I can only say I would be very happy to work with him here.”