Former Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway believes Wilfried Zaha would be a big hit at Chelsea.

Zaha has been heavily linked to Chelsea in recent months, following his failed exit from Crystal Palace in the summer.

The Ivorian was left frustrated after a prospective move to Arsenal fell through, which resulted in the sacking of his own agent.

Arsenal ended up signing Nicholas Pepe from Lille for £72 million and then sold Alex Iwobi to Zaha’s other suitor: Everton.

But with their transfer ban now lifted, Chelsea are reportedly compiling a list of targets and Zaha is believed to be one of the main priorities.

Ian Holloway, who was in charge of Palace in 2012-13, believes Zaha would thrive at Stamford Bridge.

‘I think he would be fantastic over there [at Chelsea ],’ Holloway told talkSPORT.

‘I don’t want Palace to lose him, but in reality, he is going to have to go.

‘I would love to see him in that sort of team.’

Holloway insists his view isn’t about riling the Palace faithful, but simply an assessment of Zaha himself, one of his favourite players.

‘I don’t want to upset them [Palace fans], but I am only looking and I think he is improving all the time. I see that end product from him, and I just love him.

‘He is one of my favourite players ever because I’ve never seen anyone do what he can do.’

Arsenal were quoted between £70-100m for Zaha last summer, so Chelsea will likely have to fork out for the 27-year-old.

But it’s rumoured that Chelsea have cash to splash following their window of inactivity.