Benteke happy at Palace, says De Boer

Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer has shrugged off speculation linking Christian Benteke with a move from Selhurst Park.

Benteke, 26. is among the many strikers linked with Chelsea after the Blues missed out on Romelu Lukaku, who joined Manchester United.

Everton are also reported to be interested in the former Liverpool striker, who scored 15 Premier League goals for the Eagles last season.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of his team’s pre-season friendly against Liverpool in Hong Kong, De Boer insisted the club have no plans to sell Benteke and that the Belgian is happy to stay.

De Boer said: “The only thing that I know is that he is happy here and I really want him to stay because he made a great impact last season, especially in the second half, so we don’t want to sell him.”

The Dutchman added that he is looking forward to seeing his new side in action against Liverpool.

“It’s a test for the ideas that you’ve tried to put across and doing what we’ve trained on for the past two and a half weeks, so it’s important that we continue in that way and we improve on that,” he said.

“It is very important that you play games, especially against an opponent this strong, as you can see how far away you are.”