ROB Holding is edging closer to a switch across the Thames from Arsenal to Crystal Palace.
The defender has been with the Gunners for seven years, although he has mainly been a fringe player during his spell at the Emirates.
Regular first team opportunities are far more likely to be on offer at Selhurst Park and Holding, who has just a year left on his current deal, is expected to join the Eagles for a reported £4million fee.
Manager Roy Hodgson told the media this lunchtime: “Rob Holding is a player that has interested us for a while.
“Doug Freedman knows him very well (from Bolton) and has a lot of time for him.
“We are working on the basis perhaps that you can’t have too many good quality players in your squad.
“So if he was available, and it was a deal that was doable for the club as far as Steve Parish and Doug Freedman are concerned, I can only say I would be very, very happy to work with him here.
“Our squad, compared to all the other squads I look at, is not that massive. It is not as if we are already banged out with players.
“There is some space in a 25-man squad for another player. If it could be Rob of course we would be very happy for that.”
Holding’s arrival would follow hot on the heels of yesterday’s arrival of keeper Dean Henderson from Manchester United.
But for the Eagles boss, the biggest achievement so far for Palace is fending off interest at various times for the likes of Marc Guehi, Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Joachim Andersen, who have all been linked with potential moves away from SE25.
Hodgson said: “The good thing for us I think in this transfer window is that we’ve kept the team that I was hoping to work with again when I returned to the club.
“At one stage with Michael Olise it looked as though that might not be a possibility.
“And of course with the number of clubs who have circled around some of the other good players we have and been interested in signing them, for me the best thing about this transfer window is that we still have the team I came here to work with.
“We are still working on improvements. The club is always open to improvements and Steve and Doug are still working at this moment to see if there is players who we can bring in who would really improve our team, make us even more exciting than we currently are able to be.”
The manager added: “We can afford it because we aren’t top heavy in terms of our squad.
“But if nothing happens at the end of this transfer window the chairman comes to me and says ‘Well, the other options that we were perhaps pursuing did not work out’, I still think we will have a very good squad now with the players we’ve got – keeping what we had, signing Jefferson Lerma, signing Dean Henderson and Matheus Franca.
“I tend to forget him because I don’t see him every day because he is still injured!
“One day I shall see him a bit more often I hope.”
