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QPR’s Charlie Austin should sign for Crystal Palace

By Rucker Haringey

"Charlie Austin 2015" by @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London - QPR 0 Chelsea 1. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlie_Austin_2015.jpg#/media/File:Charlie_Austin_2015.jpg
"Charlie Austin 2015" by @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London - QPR 0 Chelsea 1. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlie_Austin_2015.jpg#/media/File:Charlie_Austin_2015.jpg /
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QPR striker Charlie Austin would fit in well for Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace

Charlie Austin has been as loyal a player as QPR could ask for. He’s stuck with them even through relegation and has given his all to try to position them to move back to the Premier League. Now, with just six months left in his contract with the club it’s time to leave. The English striker would be wise to move to Crystal Palace.

Alan Pardew’s club is rumored to have serious interest in the prolific striker, but unfortunately for Palace, reports are he will turn down their advances. I applaud Austin for being very selective regarding his next move, but Crystal Palace is a great fit for a player of his talents.

My primary concern regarding Austin’s inevitable next move is that he wouldn’t be able to find a home where he’d be the first choice striker. If he were to move to Crystal Palace that’s exactly what he’d be. There’s no doubt that he’d walk right into their starting 11 as the starting striker week-in and week-out.

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Pardew’s club has a plethora of attacking talent who can provide service to a top-flight front man. What they need is a classic target man. Austin would be perfect for them. Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha have the ability to terrorize opposing defenses from wide positions. What they’ve lacked this season is a dominant player to convert their expert service into goals.

Austin would have no trouble being productive with that sort of service. He’s a classic target man who would thrive playing alongside that kind of speed. If you had to dream up a situation for Austin to be successful, it would be on a team constructed much like Crystal Palace.

Off the field Palace would also seem to be a very attractive fit for Austin and his family. The general consensus is that Austin doesn’t want to move his family away from London and obviously, a move to Palace would allow them to stay put. In all honesty, if he turns down a move to Palace I really have to wonder what he is looking for in a new club.

Palace also are having a season that is successful enough to attract a player like Austin. He has to be tired of fighting relegation/promotion battles and Palace is high enough in the Premier League table to avoid that sort of concern. He’d be stepping into a battle for European qualification as opposed to Premier League survival.

If Charlie Austin turns down a serious offer from Crystal Palace I’ll be at a loss. It seems to be an ideal fit for him both on and off the pitch. If he turns down Pardew’s pitch he may very well wait until free agency to find a new home.

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