Why Crystal Palace must make a move for Brentford’s Ollie Watkins

Back in July 2019, the Daily Mail had claimed that Crystal Palace were interested in signing Brentford forward Ollie Watkins. However, no deal materialised last summer and he stayed put with the Championship club.

Ollie Watkins, 24, joined Brentford from Exeter City in the summer of 2017 after impressing in the lower leagues of English football. He has since become one of the exciting players in the Championship, scoring 10 goals and providing four assists in the 2017-18 season and finding the back of the net 10 times and providing 8 assists last season.

This season, the 24-year-old has netted 22 goals in 35 appearances for Brentford. Watkins’ partnership with Bryan Mbeumo and Said Benrahma has proved fruitful at Griffin Park, with the trio scoring 44 goals in England’s second-tier this season.

With Watkins enjoying another fantastic season with the Bees, Crystal Palace must definitely rekindle their interest in him when the transfer window reopens.

The Eagles have been over-reliant on Wilfried Zaha and Luka Milivojevic for goals over the last two seasons but they have not lived up to the expectations this season. Zaha and Milivojevic have netted 26 and 24 goals respectively in the last three seasons and their failure to even contribute more than five goals combined this term has seen Roy Hodgson’s men struggle in front of goal.

Hodgson’s side have only netted 24 goals in 27 games which makes them one of the lowest scorers in the division. To improve Palace’s productivity in front of goal, they signed Cenk Tosun on loan from Everton in January. Tosun has netted only once in four games for Palace, failing to make a big impact thus far.

To put things into perspective, Palace still lack a prolific goalscorer in their ranks and Hodgson must make it a top priority to sign one in the summer. To that end, he must go for Ollie Watkins.

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Since arriving at Brentford from Exeter City in 2017, Watkins has scored 40 goals in 117 league appearances. He has been in rollicking form in the Championship, enhancing his reputation further this campaign with a series of eye-catching displays for Thomas Frank’s side.

Verdict

Watkins would bring a lot of quality to Hodgson’s attack, whilst adding depth to the squad. All in all, the Eagles should definitely attempt to sign him from Brentford.