Palace fans are in shock at the news the club have had a £32million bid accepted for Marseille star Michy Batshuayi. But will he ACTUALLY join the Eagles? French football expert Adam White runs the rule over this huge potential deal.

The 10 million pounds spent on Yohan Cabaye is currently Palace’s record transfer fee, good business at the time; a starter for Les Bleu, Champions League experience and a proven Premier League performer. In the last 24 hours, the club have had a bid of more than three times that amount (£31.8m) accepted by Ligue 1 heavyweights Olympique de Marseille for Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi, a player of far less international repute but equally worthy of the hefty sum.

Firstly, should Palace pull this off, Batshuayi is a catch. West Ham tabled a similar bid earlier this summer while Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs have been linked heavily in recent months, not to mention that Juventus are also reportedly interested. The 22-year-old from Brussels has been on the radar of many of Europe’s top clubs for some time, and for good reason.Michy (as he is often more simply referred to, understandably) is a powerful and direct centre forward, accustomed to playing as the lone striker. His movement around the box is subtle but effective, regularly finding openings in a league where space is at a premium while he is also adept with his back to goal, bringing others in to play or turning his centre half.

Crucially, from Palace’s point of view, Batshuayi is an undoubted goal scorer and has shown himself to be capable of finding the net in a variety of ways at Marseille, scoring 33 times in 78 matches since arriving from Standard Liege two season ago, notching 17 in 36 league outings this season, impressive in the notoriously slow and defensive Ligue 1. Whether with his head or his trademark snap piledriver of a shot, at his best Michy is a lethal, clinical finisher, often only needing one touch in the box to fire home and regularly using his sharp reactions, awareness or his pace to peel away from his marker to create the opportunity he needs.

Given the similarities between set-ups at Palace and OM, Batshuayi would slot straight into the central striking role, gleefully feeding off the wing wizardry of Wilf Zaha and Yannick Bolasie as well as service more centrally from Cabaye and co much as he does at OM in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 formation. Michy does heavily rely on service however, whether that comes from crosses, balls into his feet to hold up or over the top into space. To get the best out of him, Palace will have to play to his strengths and the onus will be on the sporting cast to load the chamber rather than have the Belgian, admittedly still a little raw at times, create from nothing. This need was all too apparent in the second half of the Ligue 1 season when his performances (and strike rate) dropped off a little in a struggling OM side.

Finding out Palace have had a €38m bid accepted for Batshuayi. pic.twitter.com/1gHDqMv5hZ

— Five Year Plan (@FYPFanzine) June 27, 2016

The player is likely to leave southern France before September 1st after Marseille’s terrible season; finishing 13th, dropping alarmingly close to the bottom three in the final few months of the campaign and failing to win at home for more than seven months. From the player’s perspective, it is time to move on but given the range of interest, will this deal come off? The Premier League has long been on the player’s mind but he is thought to prefer a club with Champions League football this season. There have also since been reports that Michy is ready to turn Palace down in favour of a bigger club.

However, with West Ham’s attention turning to Lyon’s Alex Lacazette, Juventus’ valuation being several million euros short of OM president Vincent Labrune’s and no concrete offers from Spurs, Arsenal or Liverpool apparent so far this summer, there is hope yet for Palace fans.

Although with a large sell-on clause likely to be part of any deal, the player (and the OM board) might see any move to Selhurst as a stepping stone to supposedly bigger things. Nevertheless, although this might not be the ideal situation for Palace fans, his signing would prove a very productive move for both parties. Michy Batshuayi could be the out-and-out goal scorer Alan Pardew and Palace fans have been craving.

Opinion may be divided on whether 2015-16 was a positive season for Palace: The campaign was ultimately a whisker away from the FA Cup but for a brief time it flirted with a relegation that had been unthinkable at one time.

One thing is certain, Alan Pardew and the club will have to deal shrewdly in the summer transfer window while hoping to hold on to some of its greater assets – Yannick Bolasie included. Here are five players who could keep the Eagles in the correct half of the table for 2016-17.

Alex Pritchard

Having spent a positive season at Brentford, Tottenham midfielder Pritchard was expected to break through into Spurs’ first team but an injury picked up on international duty left him on the sidelines prior to a fruitless loan spell at West Brom.

Pritchard is a combative ‘box to box’ midfielder and one who can be a serious threat at set pieces. Rumours continue to suggest that his time at White Hart Lane is up but while Napoli are the latest to be linked, the 23 year may want to prove himself in the Premier League.

Gylfi Sigurdsson

Talking of set piece specialists – Palace fans will not need to be reminded of the free kick that put Swansea ahead when the teams met in February. The Icelandic international may also have scored his country’s most important goal of Euro 2016 with the penalty that secured a point against Hungary in the group phase.

Sigurdsson is similar to Pritchard in many ways but at 26 he has sound Premier League experience and would represent less of a gamble. Leicester have been linked and the promise of Champions League football could prove too tempting but Selhurst Park is an ambitious alternative for the midfielder.

Saido Berahino

After a season that produced just four league goals, West Brom’s Berahino has been downgraded from ‘hot property’ to a player who mid-table sides might be willing to take a punt on. In January, it was Chelsea and Spurs in the frame but after that return and another troubled campaign, the latest set of frontrunners are… drum roll… Stoke City.

Palace are also mentioned and whatever you may read into the headlines, a move away is the one thing that could restart the player’s career. The only issue could be a holding club who are looking for the type of transfer fee that the Chelseas of this world were prepared to pay 12 months ago.

Lewis Dunk

A transfer between Crystal Palace and Brighton is hardly likely to run smoothly so perhaps it’s no surprise to hear that the Championship side are looking for double the £5m fee that Palace were looking to offer.

With Brighton having failed in their promotion bid, Dunk is at the cliché that is the footballing crossroads – a player with Premier League aspirations who, at 24, needs to be playing in the top flight. Despite the obvious animosity between the two parties, this may well have further to run.

Andros Townsend

Joining Dunk at those crossroads – albeit for different reasons – is Andros Townsend. Surplus to Tottenham requirements a move to Newcastle saw the winger back in the England fold but while there are suggestions that he will stay at St James’s Park, would the 24 year old have made the final cut for Euro 2016 had he been at a Premiership club?

It’s a question that the player may ask himself over the summer amidst reports that Palace are ready to trigger an £8m release clause. And there you have a potential replacement for Bolasie: immensely talented and dangerous if somewhat inconsistent.

Euro 2016 is into the knockout stage and our scouting continues as a knockout midfielder has caught Carl Mortimer's eye. 

Name: Jeff Hendrick
Age: 24
Nationality: Irish (22 caps)
Club: Derby County
Position: Midfield
Height: 6' 1"

Club history:

Derby County - 194 apps 23 goals

"He's definitely been a massive plus to us, in terms of getting up and down, getting his tackles in, keeping the ball when he can, keeping his composure and then also trying to score goals for the team."

Those words are from Republic of Ireland legend Robbie Keane and they may not have been believed by a lot of people at the start of the Euros but he is bang on the money right now.

Hendrick has been one of the stand out players in the Irish team, he always seems to be involved and has been very unlucky not to score, smacking the bar against Sweden and missing the top corner by an inch against Italy.

Wondering what the contrast between his Euro 2016 form and his club form was, I got an inside view from Joel, an avid Derby County fan who also runs a Derby Podcast channel. (Twitter: @dcfcpodcast)

He said; "Hendrick has played five full seasons at Derby now, all of which have been marred with inconsistency."

"Hendrick seems to have more room to operate in (for Ireland) and drives forward into attacking positions. Is it the presence of Martin O’Neill and one of his idols Roy Keane? Is it the fear of a complete rollocking from bad cop and bad bad cop that has seen him reach these levels?"

It all sounds very promising, but also like his hero Roy Keane, Jeff Hendrick is no stranger to confrontation as at the moment he is playing with the distraction of an impending violent disorder trial over an alleged incident in which a football coach suffered a broken jaw in October, 2013.

Joel continues: "Hendrick is now 24 and there is a sense that he has plateaued. What we are seeing at Euro 2016 is Hendrick at his absolute best and whilst this has been great to see the evidence would point to his form subsiding once again. It probably says a lot that in five seasons with the first team, Hendrick, a predominantly attacking midfielder, hasn’t scored more than seven league goals in a season."

Hendrick can clearly mix it on the big stage as this tournament has shown and with Derby maybe having to sell due to FFP he may be a good young player to have in the squad as Palace are lacking in genuine quality in that central attacking midfield area.

But on the flip side, why has no one has taken a gamble on him yet? Is it because of the off the field antics? Or is it down to him being too inconsistent? Whatever the case, these Euros have shown that there is a talented player in there somewhere but is someone willing to take that gamble?.

Would you like to see Hendrick at Palace? Comment below!

Jack Pierce watched Sunday's France game - a match Yohan Cabaye was prominent in - and reflects on what his signing means to Palace. 

'Cor, he's good. Who does he play for?'

I doubt the answer to that question during a group game at a major tournament has often been Crystal Palace but last night, it was.

Yohan Cabaye was absolutely superb at the base of the French midfield last night and despite the presence of his esteemed colleagues, Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann, two of European football's most fancied talents, it was our Yohan that was, by most accounts, the man of the match.

Palace's record signing hadn't had a sniff of game time in France's first two games and given N'Golo Kante's wonderful season, who could blame Dider Deschamps for choosing the Leicester man ahead of Cabaye? However, with Kante sitting on a booking and at risk of suspension for the Last 16 tie, Deschamps named Cabaye in the starting 11 among a number of changes to the French side.

Both with and without the ball, Cabaye impressed. His calmness when in possession is known already but to see a Palace player ooze such class on the highest stage really is a sight for sore eyes. A lot of Palace fans were surprised his defensive play was as effective as it is and last night was another demonstration of how good he is at reading the game. Time after time, it was Cabaye sniffing out promising Swiss moves. His stats after the game emphasised how impressive he was throughout the 90 minutes.

Yohan Cabaye won NINE tackles vs. #SUI

The most any player has won in a single game at #EURO2016 so far. pic.twitter.com/ocTzxETwq8

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 19, 2016

The midfielder’s move to Palace surprised a few, Palace fans included, but it basically boiled down to the following conversation with his national manager at the end of the 2014/15 season:

Deschamps: Yohan, if you want to be in the squad for a European Championship in your home country, you've got to be playing more games.

Cabaye: I know, gaffer but PSG play a lot of games so I'm surely going to get games.

Deschamps: No Yohan, I mean every game.

Cabaye: Oh. Well, where shall I go?

Deschamps: How about England? Your old boss, 'Super Al', has taken over at Crystal Palace and they're flying under him. They've also got absolutely amazing fans who would come up with a hilarious chant for you in no time and I’ve heard that South London is theirs.

Cabaye: J’aime Alan. Despite being a little morally corrupt, he let me take all the free kicks, corners and penalties.

Deschamps: Well in that case, tell PSG you want out and the rest will be a formality. Before you know it, you'll be sitting in a London office talking to Chris Grierson. Voilà!

Well, it worked. A season of ups and downs with Palace earned Cabaye a spot in the 23 and after last night’s performance; he may well make future appearances if required during the rest of this tournament.

A lot was made of the Frenchman last season. Where’s his best position? Was he worth the money?

Wherever you stand on those debates, as a Palace fan you should have enjoyed watching a Palace player so integral to a side many think will make the latter stages of the tournament. In a team littered with players from Arsenal, Sevilla, Juventus and Atletico Madrid, it was a bloke who plies his trade in SE25 who stood out.

That’s of course testament to the player himself but also to a club that has come a long, long way in a very short time.