Crystal Palace had a lucky escape over Timothy Fosu-Mensah | OneFootball

Crystal Palace have seen several players make the move to Selhurst Park on loan over the past few years to add an extra dynamic to the team and do their bit before returning to their parent clubs.

Some of these have come from fellow Premier League clubs such as Chelsea, who loaned out Conor Gallagher to the Eagles during the previous summer transfer window and also Ruben Loftus-Cheek back in 2017.

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One other player that the Eagles signed on loan from another Premier League side in recent years is defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who joined the south London club on a temporary basis from Manchester United in the summer of 2017 alongside Loftus-Cheek.

During his time at Palace, the defender made 21 appearances in the Premier League but didn’t exactly set the place alight in terms of his performances. WhoScored gave him an underwhelming overall season rating of 6.57/10, making him one of the lowest-rated players that started more than one league game in that campaign for the Eagles.

Things didn’t go too well for the Dutchman after leaving Selhurst Park either, as he was then moved out of Old Trafford on another loan deal, this time with Fulham in their 2018/19 relegation season. The defender once again failed to show what he’s capable of by making just 12 league appearances, ending the campaign as one of the Cottagers’ lowest-rated players.

In the January 2021 transfer window, the Manchester club finally cut ties with the full-back by selling him to Bayer Leverkusen in a deal worth a reported £1.8m.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly to a lot of Palace and Fulham fans, their former loan dud – who is currently valued at £3.6m by Transfermarkt – hasn’t exactly hit the ground running in Germany. He has made just six substitute appearances for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, which is unfortunate given how ex-Man United defender Clayton Blackmore once dubbed him a player who “can’t be overlooked”.

Taking into account his uninspiring loan spell at Selhurst Park, followed by his disappointing period with Fulham, eventual exit from United and lukewarm start to life in Germany, it’s safe to say that Steve Parish and the Eagles had a lucky escape over their decision to not secure the Dutch defender on a permanent deal.