One of the stories of the summer was Christantus Uche’s move to Crystal Palace, which took him from the third tier of Spanish football to the Premier League in the space of just two years. The newly minted Nigerian international has had an inauspicious start to life in England though.
Uche joined FA Cup-winners Crystal Palace on loan with an option to buy for €20m, which would become an obligation to buy if he made ten starts in the Premier League. It was an objective that most felt was a certainty at the time the move was made. However so far Uche has not started a single game under Oliver Glasner after the opening 11 games.
Crystal Palace consider backing out of Uche deal
There have been reports in England, as per Diario AS, that Palace are considering either deliberately not using him for those ten games, or even ending his loan early in the January transfer window. However as added by MD, due to La Liga registration laws, Uche would not be able to return to Getafe were that to be the case, as no player can be registered for the same team twice in the same season. Hence were the loan to be ended, it would not even help Getafe on the pitch. Los Azulones are keen to leave Uche at Palace for the second half of the season in the hope things turn around.
Getafe face serious registration issues if Uche deal collapses
Getafe were keen to get a deal done for Uche in order to register some of their new signings this summer, and ease their salary limit issues. Using some of the anticipated money that Uche’s deal brought in, La Liga permitted Getafe to register six players with it on deadline day. Were that €20m fee to exit their accounts, they would have a significant problem in both accounting and salary limit terms.
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