Crystal Palace interested in West Ham target along with Italian side
Crystal Palace have shown interest in Gent defender Jordan Torunarigha, according to a report by Tutto Mercato Web. The report claims West Ham and Monza are also keen, whilst Leeds United had a bid rejected earlier this summer.
The Eagles could see the Belgian Pro League man as someone to bolster their defensive department. His future remains up in the air at this moment in time.
Torunarigha, who is 26-years-old, is a Nigeria international with one cap under his belt so far. He joined Gent back in 2022 on an initial loan deal that was later made permanent.
The centre-back has become a key player for his current side and has made 104 appearances for them in all competitions, chipping in with four goals and five assists from the back. His contract expires next year meaning they risk losing him for free if they don’t cash in on him now or in January, as long as he doesn’t pen an extension in the meantime.
Torunarigha started out at Chemnitzer before joining Hertha Berlin in 2006 as a youngster. He then rose up through the ranks of the German club and initially became a key player for their B team.
The Saxony-born man then broke into their first-team and played 73 games before switching to Belgium. He hasn’t looked back since joining Gent and is now being linked with an exit, with Crystal Palace mentioned.
The Eagles were in pre-season action over the weekend and beat Crawley Town 6-3. Glasner said afterwards: “The first-half was really good. I’m a little bit disappointed – the second-half we lost the concentration, the focus, so we gave them three goals, and it’s never good when you concede three goals.
“Yeah, we scored nice goals, but it’s important that many players get more minutes, especially now. Joa [Andersen] and Chris [Richards] coming back after their deserved vacation are just four days into training and they played 60 minutes both. It’s challenging, but yeah, we will do the best out of it.
“First of all, the most important thing is that all the players are fit. I hope it’s nothing serious with Cheick [Doucouré] today, but it looks not serious. All others could do every training session, every game.
“With parts, I’m happy, especially today, how we created chances, how we’ve scored the goals. But also we have to be honest with four games in pre-season, we always conceded a goal.
“That’s what doesn’t make me happy because we can’t expect to always score two, three or four goals in every single game, so we have to be more consequent in our defending – and this will be the topic for the next weeks.”
