Pardew wants Flamini at Crystal Palace

Omnisports

September 6, 2016 11:13 PM

Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has confirmed his interest in Mathieu Flamini, having met with the former Arsenal midfielder.

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Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has confirmed his interest in Mathieu Flamini, having met with the former Arsenal midfielder.

Flamini, 32, is a free agent after leaving Arsenal in the off-season and Palace are among a number of clubs looking to sign the veteran Frenchman.

Pardew wants to add one more midfielder to his squad, following the departure of Mile Jedinak, but the Palace boss is wary of missing out on Flamini, having seen Jack Wilshere opt for Bournemouth.

"There is scope to bring in one more into the squad - I did that on purpose as I thought there might be a player we can take who is not under contract, who might just fit what we're doing," said Pardew, whose Palace have opened the Premier League season with two losses and a draw.

"Mathieu is a player I am looking at, yes. He would give us a bit more experience to winning games.

"I like the fact whenever he played, he played in the big, big games at Arsenal when they needed someone to kind of lead the team over the line and get big results.

"Mathieu's name was always on that list. I have always admired what he's done, so I am looking at him.

"His age, 32, in my mind I signed Teddy Sheringham when he was 38, so the age isn't a problem for me. I think his experience is something I am looking at, yes."

Pardew added: "We've had a couple of meetings with Mathieu to talk about what he would do here and how he would feel about competing with [Yohan] Cabaye, [James] McArthur, [Jason] Puncheon, [Jordon] Mutch, Chung [Yong Lee] and [Joe] Ledley.

"I think another one [in midfield] is where I'm going to go with it, but whether it's him or not, I don't know.

"We do face strong competition for him, but mainly from clubs who have got a much higher profile than us.

"It could well be a situation like Jack Wilshere, where we are in there but don't get it over the line.

"There are others we are considering. There are one or two others floating about who are always of interest."

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