Eagles swoop for Cahill

Crystal Palace today began the quest to ensure their stay in the Barclays Premiership will not be a brief one by agreeing a £2m (€3m) fee for Millwall’s highly-rated Australia midfielder Tim Cahill.

The 24-year-old, who netted the match-winning goal for the Lions in their FA Cup semi-final against Sunderland at Old Trafford in April, has yet to agree personal terms and pass a medical, but it is a positive move by last season’s First Division play-off winners.

The Eagles are widely expected to struggle next term after beating West Ham at the Millennium Stadium in May to end a six-year exile from the top flight.

However, in Iain Dowie they have a young, highly-motivated manager who transformed a squad he inherited at Christmas near the foot of Division One and turned them into promotion hopefuls.

The road to survival will not be an easy one for the south-east London club, who still have heavy debts despite the £20m plus (€30m) windfall which comes with Premiership football.

Dowie may have brought in Hungarian international keeper Gabor Kiraly on a free transfer from Hertha Berlin to offset the departure of Nico Vaesen back to Birmingham following his loan spell, but the Palace boss has already lost the services of midfielder Julian Gray, who left for St Andrews on a Bosman free transfer.

Three of his other key men from that promotion-winning side – Tony Popovic, Michael Hughes and Aki Riihilahti – have also come to the end of their current contracts this summer.

But should Palace complete the signing of Cahill, who was also reportedly attracting interest from Everton and Charlton, it would be a step in the right direction.

“Tim is a fine player and has been a great servant to Millwall over the past seven years, but has increasingly made us aware of his desire to move on,” reflected Lions’ chairman Theo Paphitis on the official club website, www.millwallfc.co.uk.

“We believe he could have realised his dreams of Premiership football at Millwall, but clearly that is not something we can offer him this season.”

With the squad now re-assembled for pre-season training after an extended break following their play-off run, negotiations over new deals are set to be stepped up – and that includes talks with Dowie, who is close to agreeing a new four-year deal.

There could also yet be changes in the boardroom before the new season kicks off at fellow Premiership newcomers Norwich on August 14, with chairman Simon Jordan considering his position.

The financial burden and hard work involved since rescuing Palace from administration four years ago have taken their toll on the 35-year-old life-long Eagles fan, who last month admitted: “I always maintained that if we secured promotion, I would consider my position.

“Certain people’s natural assumption would be to suggest that I want to profit from our promotion. But money is not the motivator. If that had been the case I would never have got involved in the first place.

“For the most part, I have found it a very difficult, disillusioning and disingenuous business where decency, hard work and commitment are interpreted as arrogance, aggression and interference.”