Crystal Palace are reportedly about to sign 'incredibly complete' player, fans should be thrilled - TBR View

By Giuseppe Labellarte

Crystal Palace are on the verge of bringing Cheick Doucoure to Selhurst Park, according to reports.

On Tuesday, The Guardian claimed that the Eagles had struck an initial £18million deal with Lens for the 22-year-old.

Doucoure, reportedly one of Patrick Vieira’s top summer targets, is expected to agree a five-year contract.

The report claims Palace tried their luck with an initial £14million offer last week, but Lens turned it down.

Then, the Eagles returned with an improved bid apparently worth more than £22million in total.

Fabrizio Romano subsequently provided an update on the Doucoure to Palace state of play.

He build on the story in The Guardian, saying negotiations were in the “final stages” with personal terms a “work in progress”.

So if all goes well, Palace should soon get their hands on Doucoure.

And Eagles fans should be buzzing over the news, as he’s a superb player and a star in the making.

‘He’s incredibly complete’

Doucoure joined the Lens setup from AS Real Bamako in 2018 and has become one of their star players.

He made 37 appearances last term, including 34 in Ligue 1, as his side finished seventh in the table.

Forming a superb midfield partnership with Seko Fofana, Doucoure impressed for a Lens side which narrowly missed out on Europe.

Doucoure has also won eight caps for Mali and played at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

“Cheick knows how to do everything on the pitch,” football.london quotes Lens teammate and captain Seko Fofana as saying.

“He works in the shadows and, for me, he is very important. He’s incredibly complete. He’s one of the best players I’ve played with.

“He knows how to shoot from distance, how to pass, break the lines, dribble and defend.”

‘An incredibly underrated talent’

In February 2021, scouting website Breaking the Lines wrote a in-depth analysis article on Doucoure.

‘If there’s a stylistic summary for you to take away from this article, let it be this,’ they wrote.

‘Cheick Doucoure works incredibly hard, covering large areas of the pitch in both a defensive and attacking sense, but he’s also both technically and mentally very acute.

‘His concentration and defensive awareness to proactively disrupt the opposition and retain possession in a simple but highly effective manner make him an incredibly underrated talent emerging from France.

‘He can also test the goalkeeper with well-struck curling efforts, as (Dimitry) Bertaud, Anthony Lopes and Denis Petric have found out in recent weeks.’