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A quick look back at this Test match, with neutral eyes, would tell thecomplete story. One team was totally prepared for the fray, the other shouldnot have even bothered to turn up, since they did not compete. To be honest,Australia probably won this 1st test while the West Indies were still ontheir way to Australia, or even by in the Caribbean. Some explanations aredue. These are not excuses, mind you, but real hard facts. Also, Australiaare not responsible for West Indies cricket.Australia have not played a Test match since March/April, against New Zealandearlier this year. The West Indies not only played against England in theEnglish summer, but even before that, managed to just beat Pakistan at home,via some very dubious decisions, and Zimbabwe too. While Australia did playsome out of season cricket, one day games, at the Colonial Stadium againstSouth Africa in August this year, that was actually very ideal, since itwould have brought their minds back gradually to the task at hand inNovember, when they would be making their assault on the West Indies’ recordof 11 Test wins in succession.In the meantime, after the West Indies returned from England, they played ina one day competition in Kenya, like Australia, but then a one day regionalcompetition in Jamaica. That one day competition in Jamaica should have beenvery instrumental in telling the Caribbean powers-that-be in West Indiescricket that something was amiss. No one heeded the signs.In the Red Stripe Bowl competition just before coming to Australia, there wasonly one century by any batsman at all, over nearly three weeks of cricket.Ironically, that batsman, Junior Murray of the Windward islands, is not evenin Australia. All of the Test players competed for their respectivecountries in that competition. Additionally, in the final set of games, thesemi-finals and finals, none of the teams in “The Final Four” managed to get200 in any 50 over spell. That in itself should have been a warning that theWest Indian batsmen, who comprised most of the batsmen for that finalsegment, that they were not up to speed for a tour of Australia.Then the West Indies had a camp in Jamaica for about a week or so beforecoming to Australia. This was like water on a duck’s back. Already tired,that camp would have done little to entice the West Indian players to eitherbe up for the tour, or to enhance their abilities, already drained from thelast year. Like Australia, they needed pure rest. Unlike Australia, theycould not get it.To add fuel to that fire, if you will, the team’s normal psychologist, Dr.Rudi Webster, was nowhere to be seen. His last assignment was ended just asthe West Indies were losing that tortuous Test match at Lords which turnedaround the team’s English summer after they had beaten England in the 1stTest. The West Indies cricket team has not been good for some time, as SirGary Sobers suggested, but being beaten by England was exactly the laststraw. The team has not been itself since Lords, in June last.Rather weirdly, Dr. Webster is being used at home for the West Indies cricketteam, but not away, fully, where the team has been struggling for the lastseveral years overseas. If anyone could explain that to me, then they couldhave my lost fortunes too. Australia, on the other hand, tries to use theiron-call psychologists as often as they require them. The case of Mark Waugh,with the match-fixing situation, is a case in point.With that kind of preparation, the West Indies were on a tight tether, onlywaiting to explode. Unluckily for them, the Australians knew this too. TheWest Indies were simply not ready at all for the fray. Steve Waugh and hisguys knew that and worked at making it even more difficult for the WestIndies to effect any elasticity and come-back. In a word, the West Indieswere beaten before this first Test started.In 1996, Perth was used for the last Test match. In this tour, pointedly,the West Indies will be struggling there next week to avert anotherhumiliation, via Glen McGrath and Brett Lee. That is not incidental.Australia knows that the West Indies are cannon fodder now, and are using it,as they should, to their advantage. Notice that the best batting pitches,Adelaide and Sydney, will only be used after Australia had calculated thatthey will have broken the record, just in case Brian Lara and co get going.The West Indies batsmen are all in need of rest and some specialpsychological help too. The body language of especially the senior batsmen,and this is even going down to the newer ones too; Ramnaresh Sarwan has losthis way, his confidence and his bounce too; speaks volumes. Notice that theWest Indies bowlers have tried to even things out. Not only are theyhearing, but, seemingly, they are listening. In the meantime, Jimmy Adams,Brian Lara, even Shiv Chanderpaul, at least in the 1st innings, SherwinCampbell, Darren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan seemed somewhat misplacedcollectively.Steve Waugh was brilliant as a captain in this game. His move to bring onStuart MacGill as the first change in the 1st innings was a master stroke,since all expected it to be an all out war with fast bowlers. MacGill dulyrepaid his captain’s cunning and confidence with the prized, almostinvaluable wicket of Sherwin Campbell, probably just less so than that ofLara. Campbell is normally the pebble, as opposed to the rock, that the WestIndies try to build their innings on.When Lara strode to the crease, the psychological trap was already set, asMcGrath had been on a rest break for over a half an hour, ready for theeffort once more. He too did not disappoint. Lara duly edged McGrath’sfirst delivery to him, the batsman badly out of place in foot movement, tothe ‘keeper. That, for all intents and purposes of the game, was that.Waugh had outplayed the entire West Indies cricket team’s hierarchy in just afew overs of the first day. With Lara gone, removed psychologically morethan physically, the rest of the team simply could not be strong enough tocope.As Glenn McGrath, the eventual “Man of the Match” suggested after his sixwickets in the 1st innings; “I will bowl much better than I did today and getmaybe one wicket.” He too knew that, while not really lucky, he had notreally bowled as well as he could to get those wickets. They were not reallypresented to him neither. He and his captain had worked for them long beforethe game started.Perth will be another matter altogether next week. The West Indies have verylittle time to recoup. There is even talk of perhaps a psychologist for theteam being brought in. Talk about closing the door after the horse hasbolted. For the West Indies to catch up now, they will have to work at warpspeed. From very recent testimony, they do not even seem to be able to comewith the speed of Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath.

At the age of 16 years and 236 days, a record was broken in north London but sadly it wasn’t for Tottenham Hotspur.

A young player by the name of Reece Oxford took to the turf of the Emirates Stadium where he faced Spurs’ great rivals, Arsenal, in the claret and blue of West Ham United.

It was a moment that has gone down in history and is the very definition of a ‘streets won’t forget’ moment in the Premier League era.

Oxford became one of the Hammers’ youngest ever players and in the Premier League’s existence, he was the eighth youngest ever.

The sad thing is, that debut could well have been for Spurs.

Indeed, in a parallel universe somewhere Oxford is the pride and joy of the Tottenham Hotspur stadium but in reality, he’s now playing for Augsburg in the Bundesliga.

Once upon a time, the 23-year-old was on the books of Spurs but left for nothing all the way back when he was just 13, being rejected by those within the academy.

Since then, his value has continued to rocket and since his debut in 2015, a match where he in the words of German outlet Kicker, he “pocketed” a prime Mesut Ozil, his estimations have increased the best part of a whopping 966%.

It has to be said that Oxford’s career hasn’t quite lived up to the hype since that famous display in Islington and although he wouldn’t now get in the Spurs first XI, the decision to reject him all those years ago is clearly a mistake.

West Ham know how to spot a young player when they see one but he is undoubtedly a player the Lilywhites could have utilised themselves or fetched a pretty eye-catching sum of money for.

Described as “truly astonishing” by Gary Lineker following his debut against the Gunners, it was thought that Oxford would go from strength to strength. However, despite his meteoric rise in transfer value, he is now battling against the odds to live up to his early promise.

He has appeared in all but four of Augsburg’s league matches this term due to injury but is now finally starting to make a name for himself again.

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The titanic 6 foot 4 centre half has shown astute defensive qualities, winning 2.8 aerial battles a game and 2.8 interceptions per match.

As a result, the youngster has now played more senior matches this term than any other campaign during his career.

On the evidence above, suggesting Tottenham should have kept for a little while longer is an easy argument to make; he could have made Levy millions.

AND in other news, Conte could unearth his next Eriksen at Tottenham by unleashing 17 y/o “whole package”…

	Anil Kumble couldn’t have written a better script for the Perth Test, claiming his 600th wicket and leading his team to a famous win © AFP

He’s been around for close to 18 years, in a career spanning 124 Tests, but Anil Kumble had no hesitation in calling the victory at Perth as his “best win ever”. He felt his side had adapted better to the conditions but said it was more satisfying because of what had gone on before.Kumble, it must be mentioned, wasn’t part of the historic triumph in Kolkata in 2001 but put this win ahead of other memorable contests from the past. He also added that his team now had the claim to being the second best side in the world. “It’s right at the top,” he said when asked to place this win in context. “It’s not just overseas but when I look back at wherever I was involved, both home and away, it’s right up there. Definitely, I think we have competed well with Australia. It’s important we take this momentum forward and square the series.”The most important thing – after what had happened in Sydney – was to play good cricket. We wanted to show that the Indian cricket team is a good Test unit. Even in Sydney, we put in a good effort but didn’t get the result that we wanted. What’s heartening is that we’ve shown that in what’s regarded as the home turf for Australia.”It’s been close to 11 years since Australia last lost a Test in Perth and few gave India a chance when they got here. Kumble, though, felt his side had read the conditions perfectly. “We came fully prepared what to expect,” he said. “Maybe people had other things in their mind but we knew that this was not that kind of a quick, bouncy track. It was important to pitch the ball up and swing it. We did that. And the batsmen stood up to all the challenges that came their way.”Did he have any hesitation about batting first on this surface? “Not really. We have the quality and experience in the team,” he said. “There are four [players] with more than 100 Tests and others who have been around for a while. It’s important we all got together and played good cricket. It was important we batted first on this pitch and knew if we put runs on the board, we could apply pressure on the Aussies.”What made this win even more astonishing is that it came on the back of a serious crisis. The mercury levels had risen after the Sydney Test and there was speculation that the tour was in doubt. Within a few days though, especially after India dropped the charge against Brad Hogg, it was clear they wanted to move on. “We were determined to win much before even Melbourne,” he said, “but it was important we stuck together in the week in Sydney and Canberra.”Going to Canberra was probably a good thing for us,” he said. “We were away from everybody. We did discuss how we’re going to go forward, how to play as a team. That’s when we had decided we’ll concentrate on cricket. We focussed all our efforts into concentrating on this game. I did discuss it individually and also collectively. I’m delighted they all came together. We needed to think positively and the kind of bonding we had is special.”Would he put the Indo-Australian rivalry ahead of India-Pakistan, especially given the recent contests? “It’s very difficult to take away the kind of equation we have in India-Pakistan [matches]. But India-Australia is about the kind of cricket that is played. At Sydney the game went right down to the wire, probably [till the] last five minutes, and here too. The thing when you play a side like Australia is you need to keep the intensity right throughout the game.”

The political crisis in Zimbabwe spares no sphere of everyday life. On Sunday, domestic cricket came face-to-face with the madding political air prevailing in the country when three league matches failed to take place due to a police-imposed curfew and stringent ban on political gatherings in Harare.Morgan Tsvangirai, the hugely popular leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, had planned to address thousands of followers at the historic Zimbabwe Grounds, located in the volatile black township of Highfield, in defiance of the legally-challenged, controversial police order. Zimbabwe Grounds, a cradle of the country’s liberation movements in the later 1970s and early 1980s, is adjacent tp the Takashinga Cricket Club, where Zimbabwe’s National League champions, Takashinga, are based.They were scheduled to host Mabvuku in the Vigne Cup, the country’s oldest domestic cricket competition. Social soccer fields at the Zimbabwe Grounds, which are normally a hive of activities on Sundays, were also under heavy police guard.Heavily-armed riot police manned the residential areas surrounding the ground, making any action impossible. By Sunday night, unconfirmed reports said three civilians had been shot dead by the dreaded riot police, notorious for mercilessly quashing any opposition to President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) government.Operators withdrew public transport in and out of the suburb, with normal life becoming idle as residents feared for their lives. The locals understandably retreated to their homes in reminisce on the police viciousness the last time MDC held a rally in the area. Shops and other businesses were closed and church services cancelled as police lurked in the vicinity, ready to unleash terror on demonstrators and residents they came across.Takashinga’s first and third sides, who were supposed to play away, were not able leave Highfield to fulfill their fixtures. Club members locked themselves in the bar the whole day.Highfield, a political hotbed of Harare, is a poor but significant residential district famous for instigating popular resistances against oppressive regimes. Despite being undermined, Highfield is also a recognised talent-hub in sports and socio-economic fields. Such well-known cricketers as Tatenda Taibu, Prosper Utseya, Hamilton Masakadza, Vusi Sibanda, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Chamu Chibhabha, amongst others, hail from Highfield where they began their careers.

Glenn McGrath played for Worcestershire in 2000 and could play a month of county cricket this season © Getty Images

Glenn McGrath, the Australia fast bowler, is considering returning to play county cricket again after opting out of Australia’s tour of Bangladesh. McGrath, who ruled himself out of Australia’s current tour of South Africa, is in Australia with his wife, Jane, who is suffering from cancer.Despite having not played a Test since January McGrath’s manager, Warren Craig, insists that his career is certainly far from finished. “Absolutely – he’ll be back,” he said.”Things are going well at the moment [with Jane]. I can’t say great because we won’t know for a few months with all the tests, but Glenn is certainly expecting to be back next summer.”We’ll talk to the selectors about whether it might be best for him to play a month of English county cricket before then.”A return stint this summer in county cricket, assuming his wife is well enough, would enable him to find some form in the off-season ahead of Australia’s summer later in the year. Clearly, McGrath’s aim is to be fit – and, crucially, in form – for the Ashes which gets underway in November before which Australia host New Zealand in October.McGrath is no stranger to county cricket, having played a season with Worcestershire in 2000 and six matches with Middlesex in 2004. During the Ashes last year, he indicated where his allegiances lay.”I’ve played for two counties and I don’t really want to make it three. I would say that Worcestershire are probably still top of my list.”

Sachin Tendulkar: ‘It’s a reflection of the type of cricket I have played all these years’© Getty Images

For a man who was on the threshold of scoring 10000 runs in both forms of the game, Sachin Tendulkar looked remarkably subdued when he first came out to bat. Virender Sehwag had already brutalised the Pakistan attack, and was especially severe on Danish Kaneria, the bowler who posed the most problems for India in the first the first Test. The score was 156 for 1 from just 38.3 overs and the stage was perfectly set for Tendulkar to take full toll. And yet, he could not score off the first 18 balls he faced.When he did get moving, though, it was a delectable cover-drive, crunched magnificently off the quick legspin of Shahid Afridi. A repeat of that shot came soon after, as if to prove the first was no freak occurrence, and then suddenly the shutters came down again. For a time it appeared that Tendulkar was fighting a tough battle, but not against Pakistan’s bowlers, or even the conditions. It was the milestones that beckoned – the 10000th Test run, and the 35th Test hundred – that were creating confusion in his mind about how freely to bat.Tendulkar insisted it was nothing of the sort. "It’s not all about getting to 35 hundreds," he told reporters at the end of the day. "There is more to cricket and life than that. If I keep on thinking about it, it will never happen. I will go out and try as hard as I have been for the last 15 years, and if it happens, it will be a great feeling, for sure. My aim is to go out and score a hundred in each and every innings, but that doesn’t happen all the time, does it?"It certainly doesn’t happen every time, and there are days when Tendulkar, for all his abundant gifts, has had to tough it out, buckle down and search for the runs. Today, as he neared the target of 27 needed to get to 10000 runs, the countdown began on the electronic scoreboard, and this set the crowd off, chearing and slow-hand-clapping. Bemused, Tendulkar walked up to Dravid. "There was a lot of noise and Sachin came to me and asked, `What’s happening?’ He knew basically that he was close to 10000, but not exactly how close," Dravid revealed at the end of the day. "I think he was at 9998 at that stage, and I told him, `2 more to go, but 15,000 is the real target’."In that sense the Eden Gardens provided a fitting stage for a feat that would set Tendulkar alongside Allan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Steve Waugh and Brian Lara in the 10000-club. "The Eden is a special spot. I’d have been very happy to have got 10,000 anywhere, but the crowd response here is quite different, so it was good to get it here," Tendulkar said, and displayed refreshing humility at being in that elite bracket. "They are all in a different league altogether, those names, and it’s nice to join that club."But, the greatest run-accumulator the game has seen since Sir Don Bradman did not see passing 10000 as an end in itself. "It’s a reflection of the type of cricket I have played all these years," he said – and there was not a person in the room who could disagree. Perhaps there are a few who wish he would show more of his old self, the daring destroyer of attacks. And that may well come when the next milestone falls. For, after getting to 10000 runs, Tendulkar’s range of strokes, even in his innings of 52, increased appreciably. The cut was aggressive and dominating once more, the drive booming, and importantly, the restrictive line from the legspinner outside the leg stump was not kicked away. It was paddle-swept so fine that the ball eventually ended up crossing the ropes closer to third man than fine-leg. That was a sign that Tendulkar was back in the hunt for runs, and not merely safeguarding his wicket till a milestone went by.

Heath Streak, Zimbabwe’s captain, has called on his country’s authorities to end the player exodus which has seen the side decimated in recent months. Although Zimbabwe were not humiliated in the Test series against Australia, it was apparent that the squad was down to its bare bones.Since the World Cup earlier this year, Zimbabwe have lost Andy Flower, Henry Olonga, Alistair Campbell and Guy Whittall, who have all retired – and others are believed to be considering their futures against the backdrop of increasing civil disintegration inside Zimbabwe.”It’s important for world cricket that we don’t fall too far behind the top Test-playing nations, and it’s good for the game that we can come out and fight,” Streak told reporters after the Sydney Test. “I think if we hadn’t lost as many quality players, who knows how far we could have taken Australia.”But Streak was keen to try to draw positives from the two matches. “We’ll learn from this experience,” he argued. “I think we’ll be very competitive against some of the lesser teams. You always look at the positives and try and build on it, and there were a lot of positives from this series for us.”Steve Waugh agreed that Zimbabwe needed help, suggesting that the ICC regulations should be relaxed to allow players like Graeme Hick to return to bolster the side.

New Zealand’s batsmen have made no significant advances on the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers Test rankings but Chris Cairns has leapt four places on the bowling list into sixth place.Australia’s Glenn McGrath heads the bowlers, followed by Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Allan Donald (South Africa) and Darren Gough (England).Interestingly, given some of his bowling for Australia during the recent Test series with New Zealand, Jason Gillespie is listed one behind Cairns, while Shane Warne is two spots behind.Pakistan’s Waqar Younis and Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas round out the top 10.The next highest New Zealand is Daniel Vettori, who slumped two places to 21st. Dion Nash is ranked 23rd, Chris Martin 31 equal, Shayne O’Connor 33rd.Shane Bond is the biggest mover on the table by advancing 29 places to 67th but clearly with a bullet.Mark Richardson is the highest-placed New Zealand batsman in 13th place, having dropped one place. Next is Craig McMillan in 17th equal while Cairns is 25th equal. Nathan Astle is 29th, one ahead of Stephen Fleming. Mathew Sinclair is in 41st position.On the all-rounders’ table, Cairns is still ranked third behind the South Africans Pollock and Jacques Kallis.

St. John’s – Mr. Justice Malik Qayyum might not be entirely convincedof their commitment, but Pakistan relied on their tried and trustedcampaigners to get them out of a couple of tight spots on the thirdday of the third and final Test yesterday.Wasim Akram, the 33-year-old veteran in his 95th Test, first turnedthe match on its head with a lengthy, unbroken spell of incisive,controlled left-arm swing bowling in the morning.It brought him the last six West Indies wickets at the miserlypersonal cost of two runs from 28 balls as the home team collapsedfrom 214 for three at the start to 273 all out two balls after lunch.Their lead was limited to a meaningless four runs, transforming thematch into a straightforward second innings contest.When the two West Indies old-timers, Courtney Walsh and CurtlyAmbrose, immediately hit back with two wickets of their own, and athird fell at 49 on the stroke of tea, it was left to Inzamam-ul-Haq,Pakistan’s leading batsman in his 64th Test, to see the emergencythrough.Just as he and Younis Youhana were seizing the initiative in apartnership of 80, Inzamam cut hard at Franklyn Rose and was given outfor 68, caught at the wicket, by umpire Billy Doctrove, standing inhis first Test.Inzamam stood transfixed in apparent disbelief before slowly trudgingtowards the pavilion, lingering on the boundary’s edge to exchange afew words with remonstrating spectators. International Cricket Councilmatch referee Peter Burge took careful note and later fined thelingerer 50 per cent of his match fee for dissent.Although he also lost captain Moin Khan for ten, Youhana, centurymaker in the second Test and the first innings here, comfortably heldfirm to the end of a day that was prolonged to over seven hoursbecause of the continuing sluggish over-rate and another spate ofvarious interruptions and delays.Youhana resumes this morning on 41, nightwatchman Saqlain Mushtaq twoand Pakistan 157 for five.They are ahead by 153 on a pitch still in excellent condition, withtwo days remaining, a situation as wide open as the second Test atKensington with two-and-a-half innings complete. The difference isthat this is further advanced.The West Indies were strongly placed when captain Jimmy Adams andShivnarine Chanderpaul resumed their fourth-wicket partnership of 130.Their first mission was to see off the second new ball, just 3.2 oversold, but Akram and his long-time pace partner Waqar Younis, in his64th Test, first throttled them with their persistent accuracy beforeAkram swept through the lower order.The West Indies had no answer to the combination. Akram kept goingunchanged for 11 consecutive overs from the northern end in themorning while Waqar hardly bowled a bad ball in seven on the trot.If Qayyum’s match-fixing findings, in which Akram, Waqar and Inzamamwere all fined, had any effect it was only positive.Akram’s final figures were six for 61, the 23rd time in his 95 Teststhat the 33-year-old champion has taken at least half the oppositionwickets in a Test innings, and moved his overall tally to 393.Only Walsh, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee have taken more and, onceinvestigations don’t spring something off, he will challenge them all.A measure of the Pakistani pair’s precision was three lbw decisionsthey gained from umpires who had not granted one over the first twodays.For good measure, Akram bowled Chanderpaul for 89 with a late,inswinging full toss when he was the last of the established WestIndies batsmen.Waqar set the collapse in train by pinning Adams on the backfoot after25 minutes in which he couldn’t add a run.Akram had to wait somewhat longer to make his impact. Chanderpaul andRamnaresh Sarwan, once more impressively serene in the face of thetype of quality, each-way swing with which he has seldom had to dealin his young career, kept going through to the first drinks break.But once Akram claimed Sarwan for his first lbw, uncertainly forwardan hour and ten minutes into play, there was no stopping him.Ridley Jacobs, enduring a lengthy run-drought, was hit on the boot byan inswinging yorker and also lbw, prompting Chanderpaul to attackAbdur Razzaq, who had replaced Waqar, with a four and a six, both inthe direction of long-on, in the same over.As soon as Chanderpaul returned to Akram’s end, he missed a late, indipping full toss that hit the stumps quarter-way up.He had resisted for five-and-a-half hours and his return to somethingnearing his old confidence was an encouraging sign for futureengagements.Ambrose lasted five balls before he sliced a catch to backward pointand Rose, after a few meaty boundaries off the returning Waqar, andKing were bounced out.The former skied a catch to long leg, the latter only got his as faras the bowler.Once more, the West Indies bowlers were left with the job ofreclaiming the initiative. Walsh and Ambrose wasted no time.Imran Nazir cut Walsh’s second ball fiercely but directly intoSarwan’s safe hands at gully, and Younis Khan ended an unproductiveseries with an ugly crosshaul that provided Ambrose with a clearcutlbw.The West Indies regained the initiative when King somehow conjured upa late inswinger to hit the overcautious Mohammad Wasim’s unprotectedoff-stump in the last over to the second interval.The West Indies have known that Inzamam is Pakistan’s batting championsince the hefty right-hander scored the first of his ten Test hundredson this ground seven years ago.Youhana, with hundreds at Kensingtonand here on Thursday, is not far behind.They were relieved to dispose of the ominous Inzamam. They won’tbreathe easily until they see the back of Youhana.

Crystal Palace have not been shy when it comes to buying and selling players to and from their fellow Premier League clubs over the past few years with Andros Townsend, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Christian Benteke to name just a few.

One other player that the Eagles sold to another side in the top division that has since proved to have been a better deal for the south London club than the team he joined is Dwight Gayle.

The centre-forward made the move to Selhurst Park back in the 2013 summer transfer window from Peterborough United in a deal worth a reported fee of £4.5m.

During his time at the club, the striker racked up 25 goals in 74 appearances across all competitions before joining Newcastle United in 2016 for a fee of £10m.

Since becoming a Toon player, the 32-year-old, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £37k-per-week according to Salary Sport, has scored 34 goals in 118 appearances, with 23 of them coming in the Championship during the 2016/17 season.

In 2018, the former Palace gem joined West Bromwich Albion on loan from the Tyneside club, where, despite scoring 23 goals in 39 Championship games, he was slammed for getting sent off in the first leg of their play-off semi-final against Aston Villa, which was described as being an “absolute disaster” by Andy Hinchcliffe.

With just 28 minutes of Premier League action under his belt from four substitute appearances this season, the Englishman’s market value currently stands at just £1.8m according to Transfermarkt, showing a massive decrease of 82% from the £10m transfer fee that Palace received for him.

Taking all of this into account, it’s safe to say that the Eagles pulled a blinder by selling Gayle to Newcastle and making a profit on him at the same time based on the lack of regular goals and assists that he’s delivered for them in the top division.

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Moving forward, given his lack of game time with the Magpies in this campaign, it could be worth the striker looking to join another club that would be able to give him regular minutes, whether that be in the Premier League, Championship or elsewhere.

In other news: Forget Zaha: Palace “star” with 54 tackles has been Vieira’s most “important player” – opinion