Chelsea ready to allow Loic Remy join Crystal Palace - as long as Blues sign Alexandre Pato

Chelsea are ready to let Loic Remy move to Crystal Palace before next Monday’s deadline – as long as the Blues secure Alexandre Pato.

Remy

Remy, who played under Eagles boss Alan Pardew at Newcastle, has always been one of Palace’s top January targets but looked set to stay at Chelsea.

However, some movement in the Pato deal over the last 24 hours has led to renewed optimism Remy and Pardew could be reunited.

Palace are desperate for a striker, with their entire group of centre-forwards having managed just one goal between them all season.

Their inability to find the net, emphasised by Jan Vertonghen’s own goal in the 3-1 defeat by Tottenham at the ­weekend, has held the south Londoners back after they headed into the festive period in sixth place and looking at a European place.

There is a deal agreed in principle with Emmanuel Adebayor should Palace’s other options fall through, but the former Spurs man wants wages of nearly £80k per week and is expected to be way short of the fitness level required to make an instant impact.

Khouma Babacar of Fiorentina and Islam Slimani of Sporting Lisbon are both likely to be too expensive for the Eagles in this window, whose striking crisis has worsened with Connor Wickham’s three-game ban for violent conduct in the Spurs match.