Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has backed Wilfried Zaha to emulate Matt Le Tissier's status at Southampton and become an "icon" for the club.
Le Tissier spent his entire career with the Saints despite often being the outstanding player in a struggling team, scoring 209 goals in 540 appearances for the club between 1986 and 2002.
Zaha's talent has also seen him linked with a move to a top-six side, but the Ivorian has committed his future to Palace by signing a new five-year deal, and Hodgson does not believe that he needs to win trophies to be considered a successful player.
"I have an enormous respect for Matt Le Tissier. That would have been a career I'd have been unbelievably proud of, to have a career at one club and to be as much of an icon and to be as well loved and as well respected at that club as he is, and furthermore to have the respect of everyone in football," he told reporters when asked whether Zaha could one day be held in the same esteem as Le Tissier.
"I don't know anyone in football who has ever said anything other than that Matt Le Tissier was a fantastic player, fantastic person, a fantastic club servant. That is not such a bad thing to have people say about you when your career is over. I would have been very happy with that. The fact is that there was a time when being at a club for a long time and serving that club very well and helping that club to do very well was enough for people.
"It seems now that we are creating a category, that if you are not in this unbelievably thin category somewhere, where if you haven't won the Premier League title or the Champions League, your career has been a waste of time. I'm afraid I don't subscribe to that. To be fair, all players who play for clubs like us have to accept that it's not going to be easy to get your hands on a trophy. But Leicester did, didn't they? And we can certainly consider ourselves in a similar category to them.
"So I'm certain that he will want and hope and desire that trophy. But I'm not prepared to suggest that the only players worth considering are ones who have won the Champions League or the Premier League trophy, because to do that you have got to play for two or three clubs.
"Who is to say that players are not fulfilled spending the next five years at Crystal Palace, doing exceptionally well every year, loved by the fans, helping Crystal Palace to a position in the league that they think they can achieve. Who is to say that that is not fulfilling goals and that is not a very worthwhile career? You are suggesting that fulfilment of goals is winning the Champions League or winning a Premier League and unfortunately there are not many teams that do that. You'd have to get yourself, I suppose, to one of those teams."
Zaha has made 288 appearances for Palace over his two spells at the club, scoring 44 goals across all competitions.
Barney Corkhill
