Swansea City offer Crystal Palace £7.5m for striker Dwight Gayle

Adebayor has not played club football since May when his Tottenham contract was cancelled but Hughes believes the 31-year-old still has the ability to cause his side significant problems. “He’s a character that needs to be loved and with the group we have, he’ll get that”.

Palace host Stoke City this weekend in the FA Cup, giving them a chance to put the Premier League woes of no wins in six outings behind them.

Palace could be ready to do business having recently brought in former Arsenal, Spurs and Man City striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

Adebayor, who had also been linked with Watford before opting for Selhurst Park, is set to go straight into the squad for Saturday’s fourth round FA Cup tie against Stoke.

Alan Pardew is planning to speak with Tim Sherwood to help him get the best out of Emmanuel Adebayor.

Pardew saw off interest from Watford and Aston Villa to complete the deal and Adebayor says that staying in the capital was always his preferred option. “Once a player reaches that level, and they’re bouncing around the big clubs, unless I become the manager of one of those I wasn’t going to see him”.

He said: “I don’t really care what has gone on at other clubs – the fact he’s scored 90-odd goals in 200 games, that’s what I like”.

He added: “The most important thing is you can’t replicate a Premier League game in training so that’ll be a challenge for him”.

“And they’ve always been resilient, they have the characteristics of a Crystal Palace team, defensively: very strong, not much given away, plus the flair in front makes them unsafe opponents”. “It is a little bit easier for us in terms of decision making, and going to the game”.