CRYSTAL Palace manager George Burley has expressed his delight at capturing the signature of former Dutch international Edgar Davids.

The arrival shocked most people in football but the Eagles chief believes his master stroke of persuading Davids to come out of retirement can only be a good thing for the club and English football.

He said: “I think it is great for the club, great for the Championship and for English football that a well-known footballer has decided that he wanted to come out of retirement and come and play.

“Of course for the Palace fans it is an honour to have Edgar in the squad, he has been a terrific professional all through his career and he has shown in the game on Tuesday that he wants to play.

“Edgar has showed enthusiasm to come here and I’m sure it wasn’t an easy choice to decide to come out of retirement after two years so I’m very pleased he has chosen to come to Crystal Palace.”

At 37 critics will doubt if the player known as the Pitbull for his competitive style of play will have lost his hunger for the game. However, this is something that Burley has yet to see.

He added: “He is a very competitive lad and very motivated and you can see when he is out on the pitch that he is extremely focused.

“He is the type of player wherever he has been has been successful. In training he concentrates and once he is finished he will go to the gym or he will be thinking about the next game.

"Edgar has come out of retirement to play football; he is enjoying training and enjoyed playing our style of football."

Davids has played in the biggest leagues and competitions in the world but Burley has quashed any speculation that the club will change its philosophy just because of the arrival of their big-name signing.

He said: "My philosophy won’t ever change and I think it is very similar to Edgar’s so we don’t need to change anything.

"He has come into a good football team so we will stick to our principles. It is great that he feels he can come straight into the side after two years and slot in very well.

“I particularly liked his comment last week when he said he can play left-back, centre-midfield and left-wing but he will play wherever is best for the team and I think that is a true professional when you have a player actually speaking like that.”

However, the manager does want the midfielder to have an impact on the younger players in the squad.

He added: “We want Edgar to help the youngsters coming through which is very important and be a great professional.

“I remember as a young player I learned from seasoned professionals and once the players step over the line a manager can’t do much about it so it is up to players on the field.

“If you have leaders and great professionals like Edgar it can only help, especially with the young players.”

Earlier in the week Alan Lee left the club to join League One side Huddersfield and Burley has revealed he would like to further add to his squad to replace the departed striker.

He explained: “Obviously Alan has left, he was made a very good offer at Huddersfield and he came to see me last week and I felt I couldn’t stand in his way.

“We will be looking to replace him. The deadline is Tuesday and then of course the loan window opens seven days after that so we would like to try and bring in another striker."