Alan Pardew promises exciting summer of recruitment as Crystal Palace move one step closer to Premier League safety

Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew is promising an exciting summer of recruitment at Selhurst Park after the club effectively guaranteed their Premier League survival with a comeback victory at Stoke City.

Palace are now 11 points clear of the drop zone and Pardew can think about building for next season, buoyed by the new Sky Sports TV deal and a possible takeover from American businessman Josh Harris.

Recruitment is now uppermost in Pardew’s mind and he revealed: ‘We are getting calls regarding players from Inter Milan and Benfica because they are our market now.

‘Palace now come into the same group as everybody below the likes of Everton, Tottenham and Liverpool, and the most important thing is to try to trade well.

‘It’s important to preserve your Premier League status early. If you leave it late, it is very difficult to get players. You don’t want other teams putting packages together and working on players before you can.

‘We are pretty secure in approaching clubs and players now as a Premier League side for next season and that’s what we will do. We have the finance to do what we say we are going to do. So it does give us a slight advantage.’

One player who will remain is reborn winger Wilfried Zaha who scored the winner at The Britannia for his first back-to-back goals since 2012.