Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Bakary Sako has refused the contract the club put on the table for him.
The Mali international is out of contract this summer following his refusal to sign fresh terms and his future at Selhurst Park is hugely in doubt in light of that. The 30-year-old joined us from Wolverhampton Wanderers back in the summer of 2015 but having had injury issues in his time with us he has only made 19 starting appearances with a further 31 showings from the bench. In that time he’s contributed eight goals across all competitions and with injuries hitting the club in 2017/18 Sako was leant on as a goal threat in his 19 appearances last season and he contributed a vital six goals.
The rumour mill had been confident that we had offered him a new deal, but that he had rejected that chance to look at his options and speaking to Football London our former England gaffer confirmed that the offer had gone unsigned.
“No, he is not signing, he doesn’t want to sign. I guess he will be moving on, I don’t know, the last I heard was that he had turned down the offer of a contract that we had made to him, so that’s the last I have.”
Not really a great loss to be fair, he played his part and contributed and Palace fans will be thankful for that, but short of a few moments it hasn’t been a deal that worked out particularly well for us, so the trick now is in finding a more consistent replacement.