Crystal Palace tried to sign Mason Greenwood last summer
Football
By
Mirror
| Jul 16, 2020
Roy Hodgson has revealed Crystal Palace made a cheeky attempt to sign “fantastic” Mason Greenwood last summer.
Hodgson was keen on trying to snap up Greenwood on a season-long loan but says Manchester United did not entertain it for a moment and the whole of football knew what a special talent they had on their hands.
Palace boss Hodgson has played the loan market to good effect in the past by getting Ruben Loftus-Cheek from Chelsea and likened Greenwood to Marcus Rashford after giving the United forward his big chance when he was England manager.
Hodgson said: “Mason is a fantastic player. We’ve known about him for a while and in actual fact I think we might even have enquired about him at the start of the season, if there was any chance of him coming out on loan.
“Of course you get the answer ‘no chance’ because they see him as one of theirs. But it wasn’t a difficult spot.
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"I think people all over the Premier League have realised there is a real talent on the books of Manchester United and it’s been just a question of time before he gets his chance.
“It was the same with Marcus, he didn’t have to wait either and they put him in early and, as a result, they find themselves with a young but very, very talented forward line.”
Hodgson has also backed Wilfried Zaha in his calls for social media companies to put down more regulations to ensure everyone has to register their identity in order to stop the sort of racist abuse the Palace winger was forced to endure.
Hodgson admitted it had affected Zaha’s “mental welfare” but insisted it would be “sad” if the day ever came when they did not pick him as a result.
“For Wilf to receive this on the day of the game and to go out and play and forget about it, is asking something which isn’t humanly possible,” said Hodgson.
“I don’t understand how if you want to use social media platforms to throw abuse around willy-nilly you can do so and no-one has a clue who you are. There are certain things that must be put down as no-brainers.”
Hodgson has enjoyed another good season at Palace with Selhurst Park always a difficult place even for the top clubs but Manchester United will not find it as initiating with no fans.
He added: “The top teams seem to get stronger, richer and capable of bringing in more superstars. So for those of us not in that category you need to use every single weapon that you have in your armoury.
"One of the weapons in ours was the Selhurst Park faithful.”