Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says Wilfried Zaha deserves to be playing at a higher level.

Despite Everton offering £70m plus James McCarthy and Cenk Tosun, Palace opted not to sell this summer.

"I'm sure it has a happy ending for everybody," Parish told the Daily Mail. "That's what I want to generate and I'm sure we'll make that happen.

"We have all been young, but the situation was not right for anybody this summer. You think at the time it is, but I would not put a cap on this kid's talent.

"I have watched him every week for 10 years, he scored the first goal in the first game after we bought the club when he was 16. So there is even a bit of me that wants to see what he can do at a top club, and I certainly would not want to be the person who stopped that.

"I feel he deserves to get there, I hope it happens and sometimes it mystifies me he's not up there already. I don't know what he's got to do - run the length of the pitch and beat four players? If people stood in my shoes having to replace him, trying to find someone in world football to do what he does, they would know.

"We are lucky to have him. But if that top club comes along and the money is right, he is an extraordinary talent and it is going to be very difficult for us."