Emmanuel Adebayor is on Crystal Palace's radar, says Alan Pardew

The former Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham striker remains a free agent having been released by Spurs in September, and could prove a suitable option with Pardew targeting a goalscorer.

For all the creativity provided by Wilfried Zaha, Yannick Bolasie and Yohan Cabaye, Palace's total of 22 Premier League goals is the lowest of any team in the division's top 12 and could undermine what has so far been a promising season.

A potential move for Adebayor is far from close, but he is a proven Premier League striker who has previously interested Pardew, who is expected to recall Connor Wickham at Manchester City on Saturday.

Pardew said: "Adebayor is a player that is there for somebody and it is a question of ourselves looking at that one and wondering where the right club for him is and whether he is the right player for us.

"It's something that is in our mix and we'll have to wait and see.

"We are trying to bring a striker in - whether permanently or on loan - and myself and Steve (Parish, Palace's chairman) are making a lot of phone calls to try and resolve that.

"You want to try and bring in a quality player and so therefore you can't dismiss anyone, or not think about all the strikers that are possibly available.

"Of course 90 per cent of them are not available, they're at clubs and they're on good contracts and the clubs want them because they are successful. There are not many who have not been in the first team. It is a very, very small market for us and we are focusing on that.

"(Adebayor) is in that group. Not just for us but many teams in the Premier League to wonder whether that is something you can do a deal with.

"We still think another striker in the group would pay dividends given the position we're in as we're four (actually five) points off the Champions League positions.

"Although we are in a little negative period in terms of our (recent) results, our results overall are still strong. In four of those games, we've got draws even though we haven't scored. Two or three wins, and we would be really kicking ourselves if we didn't strengthen."

Pardew remains without the injured Bolasie for Saturday's Premier League fixture but could again have Dwight Gayle available after the forward's return to training.

He is a reported target for Norwich but the manager said: " He's been linked many, many times - but we haven't had an official bid for Dwight.

"We've had a lot of calls and messages from agents. At the moment he is retained as our player and we're not scoring a lot of goals so I'm looking forward to him coming back."

Arsene Wenger, Mark Hughes, Jose Mourinho and Harry Redknapp have all placed their faith in Adebayor and have been handsomely rewarded.

The Togolese star is only 32 and is just four shy of hitting a century of Premier League goals; not only that he has 31 assists – all in 230 appearances.

Put simply, he is an excellent Premier League striker. If Palace can get a deal done then they should do and the sooner the better.