Is Christian Benteke Crystal Palace’s goalscoring saviour?

With less than one week to go until the start of the new Premier League season, Crystal Palace are still falling short of requiring the services of an out-and-out goalscorer. The summer transfer window has been wide open now; with deadline day only three weeks away, time is seriously running out.

Christian Benteke has been heavily linked with a move to Selhurst Park over the last few weeks. The Belgium international has struggled to cement his place in Jürgen Klopp’s starting line-up since he arrived at the club last summer under the guidance of former Reds manager, Brendan Rodgers.

The Eagles have already had a bid in the region of £25m rejected by the Reds as Klopp aims to recoup all of the £32.5m they initially paid to sign the forward following his exit from Aston Villa.

Belgium and Liverpool forward Benteke – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Eagles manager Alan Pardew is expected to up his bid to around £30m,which would be a new transfer record for the South London club.

Klopp has since admitted that the centre forward is way down in the pecking order at Anfield and the 25-year-old seems almost destined to depart as he seeks regular first-team football.

In contrast, Benteke had a prolific spell during his three seasons at recently relegated Villa, scoring 42 goals in 89 games for the West Midlands club. He would no doubt suit the style of play at Palace with his strong physique and ability to hold the ball up. His natural ability would work well with Pardew’s quick counter-attacking type of football.

It was a lack of goals which proved to be the biggest problem for the Eagles, in particularly matches at Selhurst Park, where the club had a pretty poor record last term.

Benteke… Could be… The perfect answer!

Dwight Gayle left the club in a £10m deal to join recently relegated Newcastle United and I’m sure we’ll see him back in the top-flight next season as they seek to bounce straight back from their relegation.

I do think it was a bizarre decision to allow Gayle to leave, the club don’t seem to have a stand out forward, but whenever he took to the pitch he always knew where the net was.

Overall, I think Pardew has done pretty well in the market over the summer break. Andros Townsend, Steve Mandanda and James Tomkins have all been drafted in to help improve the squad.

England winger Townsend joined Palace for £13m last month – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Townsend will provide competition for Wilfried Zaha, Yannick Bolasie and Bakary Sako. The England international’s pace and skill on the ball will work well with Pardew’s counter-attacking style of football and I’m tipping him to be one of the key players for the coming season.

Mandanda will be eyeing the number one spot as he battles with Wayne Hennessey to decide who starts between the sticks. The veteran Frenchman is full of experience and has played at the highest level of club and international football, so we are all well aware of his talents.

Hennessey was a bit shaky at some points during last season, but his European Championship performances with Wales will give him some confidence as we enter the 2016/17 campaign.

Tomkins can only be seen as the long-term successor to centre half Damien Delaney. The latter recently signed a one-year contract as he appears to be coming to an end on his Crystal Palace career. Pardew knows all too well about Tomkins as the pair worked together during their times at West Ham United and I think he will be a perfect fit with Scott Dann in the heart of the defence.

But, with West Bromwich Albion coming up on Saturday, it would be great to see Benteke in a Palace shirt firing the goals in because that’s what he does best.

He’s lacking some confidence on Merseyside at the moment and a move to the south would be great for both parties. I just have a feeling Pardew isn’t going to do it the easy way and come deadline day we still won’t have an idea of who is going to lead the line of attack.

We’ll just have to wait and see!