It's been a tough year for Crystal Palace, but there's so much to play for over the next couple of months.
Oliver Glasner is approaching the end of his title-winning tenure at Selhurst Park, but there's room for another one yet, with the Conference League title on the horizon. Of course, there's a lot of work to do on the continent, with the Eagles held to a goalless draw at home against AEK Larnaca in the first leg of their last 16 tie one week ago.
Having lost the likes of Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi to top Premier League rivals in the past year, it's understandable that things might have gone a little stale.
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Could this side need a new talisman? They've signed Jorgen Strand Larsen from Wolves for a club-record £48m fee, and he's off to a solid start, but maybe the fanbase are yearning for the new Wilfried Zaha.
How Palace can find their new Zaha
Finding the new Zaha is going to be easier said than done for Crystal Palace, especially since they had two special forwards in Eze and Michael Olise.
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Wilfried Zaha scores for Crystal Palace against Brentford.
But Zaha arguably leaves the greatest player of the lot. Eze might have spearheaded the south Londoners to silverware, but Zaha boasts a different kind of legacy, the greatest in a certain, hard-to-define sense of the word.
He was a crucial player, always a nuisance on the big occasion and breathtaking when on his A-game in the Premier League. Zaha, now 33 and playing for FC Charlotte in the United States, played 458 times for Palace, scoring 90 goals and supplying 54 assists.
Wilfried Zaha - Favourite Opponents
Opponent
Brighton
Leicester
Watford
Wolves
West Ham
Southampton
A brief stint with Manchester United in his early days and loan spells notwithstanding, the Ivory Coast international played the duration of his long career in English football with Palace, his boyhood club.
That special connection reinforces the claim that he's in a league of his own, but Glasner has actually discovered a star in the academy who could be the club's new homegrown hero.
Glasner has found Palace's new Zaha
Finding the next Zaha is going to be no easy feat, but it does feel like this is the year of the youngster, with Arsenal's Max Dowman and Liverpool winger Rio Ngumoha both emerging to an emphatic effect in recent months.
There's a sense that patience will be a virtue with such up-and-comers, but even so, it's hard not to get excited if you're of a Crystal Palace persuasion, with Joel Drakes-Thomas emerging as the Eagles' own prodigious prospect.
Like Dowman, Drakes-Thomas is only 16 years old, and he's already featured four times across all competitions this season.
Crystal Palace's Joel Drakes-Thomas
A versatile and protean attacking midfielder, Drakes-Thomas is right-footed and endowed with pace and physicality. He is more of a creative outlet than a direct source of goals, but it's not like Zaha rammed them home each and every week.
And, most importantly, the teenager has shown that he can do it on the major stage, already playing twice in the Premier League since the festive period and completing the full 90 during Palace's Conference League clash against Kuopion Palloseura back in December. In that 2-2 draw, he was the Player of the Match.
Joel Drakes-Thomas vs KuPS
Match Stats
Minutes played
Goals
Assists
Touches
Shots (on target)
Accurate passes
Big chances created
Crosses
Succ. dribbles
Recoveries
Tackles won
Duels won
Deployed on the left wing, it's not hard to see why that was the case, with Drakes-Thomas's creativity, combativeness and ball-carrying leaving little to be desired.
He still has a lot of work to do, but there's no question that Drakes-Thomas is viewed as a potential superstar at Selhurst Park, and it's important that Glasner continues to give him minutes here and there before draping the curtain on his tenure this summer.
As Glasner said, "One swallow does not make a summer." Even so, there's no question that Drakes-Thomas is the real deal, a player of genuine potential who has already been recognised at this early career stage.
He must be eased onto the senior stage, but the attacking midfielder has a big future ahead of him, and while there is a lot of change at the club right now, there's no question that he might just be the future.
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