Whisper it, but a Crystal Palace without Wilfried Zaha is becoming an increasingly more acceptable scenario behind the scenes at Selhurst Park.
But here’s the catch: he remains their best player. For all of the progress they’ve made in building a team far less reliant on Zaha’s brilliance there remains an acknowledgement that the supremely gifted 29-year-old continues to be their standard bearer.
Yet, there is a growing sense that maybe, just maybe, Palace can finally cope without their iconic talisman.
The emergence of Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, who can both occupy the positions Zaha does, has once and for all ended the ‘one-man team’ accusations that have irritated so many at Palace.