February 3 2018

Palace

Spanish goalkeeper Vicente Guaita will join Crystal Palace on a free transfer from Getafe at the end of the season.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson confirmed the club has signed a pre-contract agreement to acquire Guaita on a Bosman on July 1 when his contract runs out.

Getafe rejected Palace's January window offer of £2m for the 31-year-old goalie, who has been at the La Liga club since 2014, and will now lose him on a free.

"We have signed a pre-contract with Vicente Guaita so he will join us on 1 July," Hodgson said. "We would have liked to have tried to persuade the club to sign him in January but they didn’t want to do that, which is their right because his contract with them does not run out until the summer.

"It is good news that we will have him from July 1 and he will boost our goalkeeping contingent in the way I was hoping it would be boosted."

Hodgson had been desperately looking for a new stopper after stating that he needed more competition for Wayne Hennessey and Julian Speroni.

Palace also saw a move for Brondby keeper Frederik Ronnow collapse for the second successive window but they could revisit that deal in the summer.