Sky Sports' renowned Italian transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, and The Athletic's resident renowned English transfer journalist David Ornstein, both reported on Thursday that France international striker Jean-Philippe Mateta has submitted a transfer request to Crystal Palace.

According to their reports, Mateta formally submitted the request after becoming frustrated with Crystal Palace repeatedly rejecting offers from Juventus.

Romano said, Juventus had actively made several offers to Crystal Palace to sign Mateta since the beginning of the month, but each offer was rejected by the Eagles' Chairman, Steve Parish, who stated that he "didn't want to lose a key player."

Considering that Crystal Palace's €40 million asking price was still too high for January, I Bianconeri recently had offered a different approach, proposing a loan with mandatory to buy option for Mateta, but this offer was also rejected by Parish.

Realizing the chances of joining the Serie A giants does not often come, a disheartened Mateta, through his agent, has conveyed his desire to leave Crystal Palace as soon as possible.

Ornstein added that, Juventus' reluctance to submit a €40 million offer to Crystal Palace was also related to the excessively high commission fee demanded by Mateta's agent.

Regardless, with his contract expiring at summer 2027, Mateta has decided to follow in the footsteps of his former teammate, England international center-back Marc Guehi, by insisting on not renewing his contract with Crystal Palace.

Furthermore, both men refuted reports by Romano's colleague, Kaveh Solhekol, whom claimed that Manchester United were also interested in signing Mateta.

Romano countered that Manchester United had never truly decided to bring in a new striker; the Red Devils' current focus and position potential to be strenghtened remains defensive midfield.

Most ridiculously, Solhekol had already mentioned this point in his report, thus he ridiculed the former's report as contradictory and untenable. 

Atalanta has not submitted any offer for Mateta either.

AC Milan, having just signed West Ham United striker Niclas Füllkrug on-loan with an option to buy, naturally will not be interested in signing Mateta in a similar manner, thus rendering Solhekol's claim that rumours regarding the player and I Rossoneri totally unfounded.

Ornstein also refuted that, while there really are other Premier League clubs besides Juventus that are indeed planning to get involved in Mateta's transfer battle, Tottenham Hotspur, as Solhekol claimed to be, is not among them.

He said, the rumours surrounding Spurs and Mateta originate from personal comments made by former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan, who currently works for the notoriously infamously British online media outlet TalkSPORT. 

However, he asserted that these reports were never true, and Spurs had never submitted a £50 million bid for Mateta on the summer transfer window deadly day, nor have they submitted a so-called £35 million offer in January.

Currently, Aston Villa is the only Premier League club genuinely interested in signing Mateta, but the Villans has not yet made any official approach with Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace is expected to demand Evan Guessand as part of a deal to the club as acquisition to Villa.

This shocking news of Mateta's departure is a heavy blow to Crystal Palace, who recently lost their captain, Guehi, for a mere £20 million.

About Jean-Philippe Mateta

The 28-year-old Jean-Philippe Mateta was born on June 28, 1997, in Sevran, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. He is 1.92 meters tall and plays as a center forward.

Mateta previously played for Sevran, Drancy, Châteauroux, Lyon, Le Havre, and Mainz 05 before joining Crystal Palace in 2021.

Since joining the Eagles, Matteta has made 185 appearances for the Premier League club in all competitions, scoring 56 goals and providing 13 assists. He was also part of the team that pulled off upset trophy victories in the FA Cup and the Community Shield.

Image source: Internet / Sky Sports