He's just too good for you! How man-of-the-moment Wilfried Zaha took English football by storm

With Manchester United ready to pounce for Palace starlet Wilfried Zaha, we asked our Crystal Palace expert Ed Malyon to give us the lowdown on the hottest player in the Championship.

"He looks about twelve," comments one supporter in the Holmesdale stand as a gangly, youthful striker takes to the field for Crystal Palace.

His shorts are pulled high above the waist, his shirt billows with excess polycotton yet his boots are electric blue. The boots, it will later emerge, are new. Bought for him as a present by his manager when it was decided that his shabby old black ones simply weren't fit for him to be making his professional debut in.

He touched the ball perhaps six times, but this brief 10-minute cameo was one of exciting promise - although whether this youngster's substitute appearance had come about because of his unique talent, or because of the club's perilous financial state was still unclear. After all, every player on the Eagles' substitute bench that day was an academy product, the oldest just 20 years-old.

This particular youngster was Wilfried Zaha, and once his club had survived a financial near-apocalypse in the approaching summer he would prove that he had made his bow for all the right reasons, going on to establish himself as a regular in the first team, just as many of the club's academy graduates had before.

Zaha though, is very much a one-of-a-kind player. Immediate comparisons were inevitably drawn to Victor Moses, with both players being exciting wingers capable of being the central frontman, but as is often the case with these lazy parallels it is wide of the mark.

Bulkier: Zaha's increased strength has also played a key role in his improvement over the last year

Christopher Lee / Getty

?

Moses is an exciting prospect, but an entirely different proposition to the player that Palace fans affectionately refer to as 'Wilf'. While the two players are of similar height, the Chelsea winger is of broad-shouldered build, with a languid, slow-motion dribbling style where he seems to almost drag and slide the ball past players.

Zaha on the other hand, is a spindly, darting little winger. Fast and incisive, but forced to bend with and skip over challenges that Moses would simply bounce off or ride. Where Zaha's strength lies is in his ability to beat a man one-on-one - and that's the principal reason for his call-up to the England squad.

To many, it may seem that Roy Hodgson has added the Palace star to this week's team simply to prevent him being convinced to play for the Ivory Coast, something that the Elephants were very keen on for January's African Cup of Nations. However, Hodgson told Zaha in his phone call this weekend that he sees him as a very real part of his World Cup 2014 plans, considering there to be few players anywhere in England (perhaps Europe) that are better at taking on - and beating - a man.

?

The youngster's array of skills are to be marvelled at. When the Brazilian, Ronaldinho, was at the height of his powers he was asked a question in an interview about his dazzling variety of stepovers and tricks, and how he performed them. "They just happen," he said, "they are natural".

With Zaha it is the same. His footwork and shift of balance are sublime, but the speed at which they happen suggest that it emanates not from an elaborate thought process, but an innate burst of something deeper - raw talent.

It has taken the South London club over a year to begin to fully harness this talent in the first team, but their hard work is undoubtedly being rewarded as they find themselves top of the league and having nurtured this fine young man - 20 years-old only on Saturday - into the best player in the Football League.

?

There have been the inevitable days when he tried too much, beating a man once, twice and three times only to be dispossessed. There were times when players could only get to grips with him by fouling him out of the game, and this still happens, but whereas he would previously self combust, retaliating and earning himself a red card, he now gets on with it secure in the knowledge that his talent will eventually be too much for those attempting to do him harm.

His final product has improved immeasurably, something no doubt intertwined with a refinement in his shooting technique that has also begun to bring him more goals. The marked and significant improvement in his team's fortunes this season have been down to the improved balance of having a natural winger on the left to balance with Zaha - that winger, Yannick Bolasie, was described by Wilf as the best partner of his career - but his own development has been more steady, more subtle.

Crucially for a modern winger he has also worked on his defensive responsibilities a lot, something that proved vital in Crystal Palace avoiding relegation last season and that proved an unexpected positive from Dougie Freedman's defensive style of football.

?

All of this improvement has contributed to his call-up and despite the swell of misinformation that has been published in the last 24 hours or so this does not affect his Palace future in any way.

His new five-and-a-half-year deal, signed less than a year ago, means that Crystal Palace very much hold the key to his future, but while the club has no wish to retain his services against his wishes, while they are in the race for promotion to the Premier League they have simply no interest in selling their prize asset.

As co-chairmen Steve Parish and Steve Browett have asserted on numerous occasions, even accepting ?20million for the winger seems fruitless when keeping him represents the best chance of promotion to the Premier League and a potential bounty of closer to ?90million.

Targeted: Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha is a wanted man, but has no reason to leave

Getty

?

Being an England international will only raise his potential asking price, but being in the national squad does not mean that he should be in any rush to leave the Championship club. Having played over 100 first team games at such a tender age he already has a lot more experience than his peers, in fact, of those selected alongside him in the England under-21 squad last week, only fellow Palace graduate Nathaniel Clyne and Liverpool's Jordan Henderson have played more.

And what experience it is. By the age of 19 he had survived a relegation battle, administration, played in a major cup semi-final (losing on penalties) and beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford - and it has all contributed to maturing him from a hotheaded tyro into an exceptionally effective young professional.

Zaha is a player destined for the Premier League, but neither he nor the club are in any rush. Hodgson's faith in the level of the Championship is sufficient that he has picked the league's best player for an international call-up, and it does not diminish the winger's unique talent that he is yet to play in the top flight. Contrarily, it highlights it.

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/how-wilfried-zaha-went-from-crystal-1432069

Olympics Opening Ceremony Katherine Jackson Olympics Opening Ceremony Time paris jackson paris jackson US weekly amelia earhart