Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has confirmed that Sam Johnstone and Naouirou Ahamada have asked to leave the club.
Goalkeeper Johnstone informed Palace while away on their week-long tour of the U.S for the Stateside Cup in pre-season that he wanted a move away, while midfielder Ahamada is unsettled by a lack of game time.
Johnstone, who signed on a free transfer in June 2022 has been understudy to Dean Henderson since returning from a broken elbow sustained on international duty with England in March and had his squad number of No 1 taken away from him this season. He is unsettled at Palace and Glasner confirmed his desire to leave.
Ahamada has struggled for any meaningful game time since his arrival from Stuttgart in January 2023 for €12million (£10.6m; $13.1m), starting just once in his 28 Premier League appearances, accumulating a total of 331 minutes.
When asked if Johnstone would be in contention to start Palace’s Carabao Cup match against Norwich City on Tuesday, Glasner was cautious, before admitting the 31-year-old was looking for a new club.
“Sam told us he wants to leave, and so if he finds a club he can leave,” Glasner said. ”That is not the best situation to get a start.”
The 22-year-old Ahamada is in search of more minutes which are unlikely to come at Palace as he is behind Jefferson Lerma, Cheick Doucoure, Will Hughes and Adam Wharton, with Glasner admitting he could leave before the end of the transfer window on Friday.
“I don’t want to talk about individuals. We talk to every single player. Everybody knows the situation, we know the situation, how the players are thinking about it.
“He is here now for more than two years. He hasn’t had many minutes that he needs at his age and so we spoke together. He thinks it would be good for him to get more minutes. It’s very difficult with all the competitors in his position to get these minutes here.
“So maybe there is another option for him and this is what he is looking for and maybe this is what will happen or not.”
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