Steve Parish Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace ‘want to be selling’ to sides like Newcastle United – but Steve Parish has warned that the ‘club comes first’ after the Magpies failed to sign top target Marc Guehi. Parish, who has given five interviews to broadcasters in the last three weeks, went very public with his demands for ‘superstar money’ following Guehi’s performances for England at the Euros. Newcastle ultimately tabled a bid worth £65m plus £5m in add-ons, but Crystal Palace held firm despite Guehi having less than two years left on his contract. Now, looking back, Parish was the first to admit that the window did not work out in ‘exactly the same format that we thought it would’ at the start of the summer. In fact, Parish thought it would be ‘more likely’ that Guehi would go rather than defensive partner Joachim Andersen, who ended up joining Fulham for £30m last month. Although Parish previously said he ‘could not imagine’ both Guehi and Andersen leaving in the same window, the Crystal Palace chairman has now suggested there was still an ‘outside possibility’ the former could have also left the club if Newcastle had ‘got to the right number’. However, that prospect was firmly ruled out in the final days of the window after defender Chadi Riad suffered a knee injury, which meant that it was ‘impossible’ for Crystal Palace to consider letting Guehi go. At least in this window.
Steve Parish said “We want to be a destination club in the end. That’s what we want to be. We want to be playing in the Champions League, but the reality is we don’t right now. That’s what players want to achieve in their career and we respect that and we respect the fact that sometimes we’re going to be a pathway to that. We’re proud that Michael’s [Olise] gone to Bayern Munich. We want to be selling to the top clubs or to clubs like Newcastle who have got great aspirations and have recently been in the Champions League so we have to manage all of those things. We won’t get really great young talent come to us if they think they’re going to be stuck. Equally, the players have got to realise that the club comes first and we have got to do our best to make sure that the club thrives.”
