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Crystal Palace have signed Yohan Cabaye from French champions Paris St-Germain for a club-record transfer fee of £10m.
The 29-year-old midfielder joins on a three-year deal, with the fee possibly rising to around £13m with add-ons.
Cabaye joined PSG from Newcastle for £19m in January 2014 but started just 13 matches as Laurent Blanc’s side won a domestic Treble last season.
Palace’s previous transfer record was £7m, paid in 2014 to Wigan for 27-year-old Scottish midfielder James McArthur.
Palace manager Alan Pardew signed Cabaye from Lille in 2011 during his time as Newcastle boss, with the France international going on to score 18 goals in 93 appearances for the Magpies.
Cabaye said he was focused on his “new life” and believed that Palace could “compete to get into the top eight”.
He said: “I also know the gaffer and have worked with him before and I’m confident with him. I want to do my best for him because he’s made a big effort to get me to come here, as well as the chairman.”
Last year the form of Thiago Motta, Javier Pastore, Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi meant Cabaye, who has 38 international caps, was used largely as a substitute at PSG.
The French club won the Ligue 1 title, the French cup and the French league cup last season.
Editor’s Note: This is a fantastic signing for Crystal Palace but particularly frustrating for Tottenham fans as many felt he would have been an ideal signing for the club especially as it would have strengthened the Centre Midfield area which is a main priority this Summer. Cabaye who will be looking to get in the French EURO 2016 squad has obviously decided that first team Football is the main priority this season and has linked up with Alan Pardew for a second time.
With Tottenham not going in for Cabaye, does this mean we are in for somebody else? – I hope it does as the options we currently have are still a bit light in numbers and in quality. We were put off by the fact he’s 29 and would demand high wages? – possibly, this in all honesty wouldn’t be a “Levy signing” but sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot and miss out on top players like this due to the rigid transfer structure we have in place. If we do manage to get another top Midfielder in then missing out on Cabaye will no doubt soon be forgotten but if we don’t then we could point to this as certainly one that go away.
