Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha has said that his spell at Manchester United made him depressed. Zaha joined Manchester United from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2013 on an initial transfer fee of £10 million.
However, United loaned him to Cardiff City in January 2014. Zaha said that then manager David Moyes never gave him a chance at the club.
He rejoined Palace in 2014 and has been a regular at the club ever since.
Zaha said, “Obviously, getting to United isn’t easy, so not being given a chance is hard to take. I don’t regret anything because it made me stronger. The feeling is that I can deal with anything now.
I went through so much with United, with England. There were rumours that the reason I wasn’t playing for United was because I slept with David Moyes’s daughter, and no one attempted to clear that up. So I was fighting my demons by myself, these rumours that I knew weren’t true.
I was dealing with this at 19 – living in Manchester by myself, nowhere near anyone else, because the club had a hold over where I lived. They hadn’t given me a car, like every other player. Nothing. I’m living in this hell by myself, away from my family, and I thought, ‘If this doesn’t make me stronger, what will?’”
The Ivorian added, “When I was at United I had money, but I was still so down and depressed. People think your life’s different because you’ve got money, you’ve got fame, so they don’t treat you the same.”
Wilfried Zaha is currently Crystal Palace’s talisman. He has started this season brilliantly. In four Premier League matches, the Ivorian has scored 3 goals.
Crystal Palace are currently 12th in the Premier League and play their next match against Newcastle tomorrow. Newcastle are currently 19th in the Premier League, having salvaged only one point from their first five games.
