Crystal Palace Opinion: Eagles should grab the opportunity to get rid of Christian Benteke

According to The Times, Crystal Palace hitman Christian Benteke has been linked with a union with his Belgian compatriot Marouane Fellaini at Chinese club Shandong Luneng Taishan.

The Times understands that Shandong Luneng have put a £15million offer on the table for the 28-year-old Belgian centre-forward and Benteke might head for the exit door at Selhurst Park this summer.

The cash-rich Chinese outfit have a lucrative deal for Benteke in the pipeline, with Shandong offering him a deal worth £8 million a year, which comes to more than £150,000-a-week.

Benteke, who made his move to Selhurst Park from Liverpool for a staggering £32 million back in 2016, made an instant impact in south London, netting 15 goals in his inaugural season and establishing himself as a firm fan favourite.

However, things have gone downhill for the Belgian ever since, with the 28-year-old not being able to replicate the same form due to his struggles with injuries. Benteke scored only thrice in the Premier League in the 2017-18 season and his returns depreciated even more this time around, with the Belgian scoring just once in 16 league outings for the Eagles.

Benteke’s relationship with the fans and his familiarity at Selhurst Park is not quite the same any longer, and his future at Palace remains very much up in the air, with his current contract set to expire in the summer of 2020.

The Belgian hasn’t been anywhere near his best over the past couple of seasons and it remains to be seen whether Roy Hodgson would be willing to keep him at the club beyond his current contract.

The 28-year-old established himself as a prolific frontman in English football with Aston Villa earlier in his career. An impressive strike rate of 49 goals in 101 games for the Lions earned him a move to Liverpool, where he failed to make the same kind of impact and was deemed surplus to requirements after just a single season.

Palace forked out a massive amount and offered him an escape route, and although he did deliver the goods in his first season, the Belgian has proven himself far too inconsistent and injury-prone to rely upon.

To put things into perspective, Crystal Palace need to make a decision on Benteke’s future very soon given that he has only a year remaining on his contract.

While the fans at south London might be divided in their opinion regarding the Belgian’s future, few would argue that the Eagles have a golden opportunity on their hands to get rid of their wayward and inconsistent hitman, with Shandong Luneng courting his services with a £15 million offer and a lucrative deal.

In all honesty, Benteke deserves a lion share of the blame for Palace’s goalscoring woes in the Premier League over the past couple of campaigns.

The Eagles would have expected a lot more from him when they splashed 32 million to secure his services but Benteke has largely underwhelmed during his time at Selhurst Park. He has struggled for form and fitness and his poor run of form has rendered the club short of viable options up front.

Now that Benteke has failed to pay the dividends, Palace should look to recoup the massive amount that they paid for him three years back. Benteke’s stocks have been on the decline and his market value is likely to have depreciated quite a lot over the last couple of seasons.

Hence, Palace must consider themselves extremely lucky to have a £15 million offer for him on the table, and given that he is already 28, they are hardly going to get better offers than that.

Benteke currently earns around £130,000-a-week at Palace, wages which are really very high by the club’s standards, and the Eagles are not doing themselves any good by paying him such figures. Thus, it is not difficult to see why they would do themselves a big favour by getting the Belgian off their books.

Palace looked a lot better in the final third when Mitchy Batshuayi was on loan in the second half of this past season and his form reminded the fans that the club can certainly reach greater heights in the Premier League with a fast, agile and more dynamic striker leading the line.

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Irrespective of what the future holds for Wilfred Zaha, Palace need to offload the inconsistent and underwhelming Benteke and reinvest that amount to bring in a new prolific No.9.