Routledge rejects Palace offer

Winger Wayne Routledge has turned down a new five-year deal with Barclays Premiership club Crystal Palace.

The England Under-21 international is out of contract in the summer and his relegation-fighting club now have to decide whether to sell a major talent or see him leave for very little.

Chairman Simon Jordan has told manager Iain Dowie he must sell players in the January transfer window to help balance Palace’s books but Dowie hoped his close working relationship with Routledge would convince the player.

He confirmed Palace had made a “sizeable” offer, thought to be worth £12,000-a-week (€17,000).

Dowie said: “Wayne has intimated to me that there won’t be a positive response to the new deal, but while he is here I will spend every day trying to get him to change his mind.”

Dowie must now decide whether to sell for an acceptable fee this month – or keep Routledge to help Palace fight to stay in the Premiership and let walk out free at the end of the campaign.

Palace will recoup some of the costs of developing Eltham-born Routledge, 20, through their trainee scheme – just as they would be due a compensation figure if he left.

But it is unlikely to reach the £3m (€4.3m)package they are said to have rejected from Tottenham last August.

And now Dowie is faced with the prospect of fending off other interest in Routledge.

Dowie is also the subject of a move away from Palace as Leeds’ prospective new owner Sebastien Sainsbury is hoping to lure the Eagles’ boss to West Yorkshire if his consortium take control at Elland Road.

Sainsbury told The Independent: “There’s only one man for the job as I see it and that man is Iain Dowie.”