Christantus Uche’s hopes of remaining in the English Premier League with Crystal Palace currently hang by a thread, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 22-year-old joined the FA Cup winners on a season-long loan with the option to make the move permanent for a fee of £17m, provided he starts ten league games for the FA Cup Champions.
However, things haven’t panned out for Uche in London as he’s played just seven minutes of Premier League football after a decent start to the season in Spain, where he’d scored a goal and registered an assist for Jose Bordalas’ men.
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While Getafe has yet to receive any amount from Uche’s deal due to the transfer conditions, things might even get worse for the Spanish side.
Palace coach urges for attacking reinforcements away from Uche
The Eagles were wasteful in their UEFA Conference League loss to Strasbourg, as they missed two chances to find the back of the net in front of a gaping goal.
As usual, Uche spent all 90 minutes on the bench at the Stade de la Meinau, and a livid Oliver Glasner revealed his team needs more attackers who can come from the bench and change games, sidelining the Nigerian.
Glasner’s men have lost two of their opening four Conference League games, and the former Frankfurt coach was left frustrated by his side’s lack of cutting edge as they twice hit the woodwork.
Their lack of edge in front of the goal has become second-nature for them this season, and the Austrian has called for attacking reinforcements during the January transfer window, a window where Uche might be on International duty with the Super Eagles for the AFCON 2025 tournament in Morocco.
“The situation where we have all these chances, we are missing. We could talk about six, seven, or eight games,” the 51-year-old said in quotes revealed by Standard UK.
“A few of them we won, Liverpool. We can turn it around, but we can’t always rely on keeping a clean sheet.
“The game was exactly how we expected it. We knew that they took a high risk in the buildup.
“If you have two of these chances, winning the ball, then just have to pass into the empty goal, then you should take it. If you don’t take it, you don’t deserve to win.
“It happens too often, maybe it’s part of our development. I would really have liked to avoid this defeat, but nobody misses on purpose.
“I haven’t played an international (European) game with as many big chances as we had today, which makes it even worse.
“We have to support the players. This is what we will do. It’s the only thing we will do: support them, encourage them, stay positive.
“The second thing [to improve in attack] is to buy a player in January,” the one-time UEFA Europa League winner concluded.
Uche played 33 of Getafe’s 38 league games last season, citing his importance to the Jose Bordalas team, and he’ll be extremely disappointed by his lack of playing time in the English top-flight this season, considering it was a move supposed to take his career to the next level.
