Crystal Palace struck gold when they sold a “bagsman” for as much as Zaha

This year has been a strange one for Crystal Palace. The Eagles bid farewell to Roy Hodgson and then enjoyed an incredible revival under Oliver Glasner before things went a bit pear-shaped.

Indeed, the Eagles sold Michael Olise this summer, joining Bayern Munich for a fee of around £50.8m and becoming their highest sale of all time. Since then, they’ve only picked up a single win in the Premier League.

Interestingly, the only sale the Eagles have made even close to a similar fee was Aaron Wan-Bissaka when he was snapped by Manchester United in 2019 for £50m.

Joachim Andersen also left Palace that summer, joining Fulham for around £30m and becoming their third-highest sale, ahead of Yannick Bolasie and Alexander Sorloth in fourth and fifth.

Number six on the list though, was Dwight Gayle, who the Eagles sold to Newcastle in 2016 for around £10m, being sold for just as much as club legend, Wilfried Zaha, and England international, Sam Johnstone.

Dwight Gayle’s Crystal Palace career in numbers

Gayle made 74 appearances for the Eagles, scoring 25 goals and providing three assists, totalling 3,455 minutes played.

This was an obvious improvement on his first season at Newcastle, scoring 0.30 more goals per 90, hitting 0.98 more shots on target per 90, and increasing his goals/shots on target ratio by 0.13.

Whilst the points per match metric is a team performance metric, Gayle’s influence on Newcastle in his first year can be seen, as he was averaging 1.92 points per match for the Toon in the Championship, scoring a staggering 23 goals in 32 games, earning them promotion back to the top flight.

After making the move to Newcastle for £10m, Gayle made 122 appearances in his six years at the club, netting 34 goals and providing 11 assists in 5,937 minutes played.

Dwight Gayle’s market value in 2024

After being sold for such a sum of money, Gayle’s value peaked in June 2019 according to Transfermarkt, valued at around (£12.5m). But from that point, there was a rapid decline in the striker’s value, who is now playing for Hibernian in Scotland.

After being valued at £12.5m in 2019, aged 29, the striker hit a value of just £3.3m two years later in June 2020, aged 31. The ageing forward spent a few years with Stoke City in the Championship and Derby County in League One, before trading England for Scotland.

It was with the Rams that the English striker was lauded as a “bagsman” by teammate Korey Smith, with other players stating “that’s what he does” in regard to Gayle’s scoring prowess.

The 35-year-old has made five appearances for the Scottish side this season, scoring just one goal and totalling 150 minutes played.

Unsurprisingly, he is now valued at just £100k. So despite having a good start to life at Newcastle after his move, the fast decline mean Palace cashed in at just the right time.