Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has opened up on the summer transfer saga involving centre-back Marc Guehi.
The England international was expected to leave the Eagles amid strong interest from Newcastle United, who submitted several offers for the 24-year-old. Newcastle’s last offer was worth a club-record £65m including add-ons, though Palace turned down the proposal.
Parish has revealed that Palace’s plans in the transfer window changed, having initially expected that Guehi would move on after impressing during England’s run to the final of Euro 2024.
Andersen sale changed Palace’s Guehi stance
The surprise sale of Joachim Andersen to Fulham and an injury to summer signing Chadi Riad prompted Palace to reject Newcastle’s advances for Guehi.
“I don’t think the window worked out exactly the same format that we thought it would,” Parish said to Sky Sports News.
“Maybe we thought at the beginning it’d be more likely that Marc Guehi went and we kept Joachim Andersen.
“We accepted that bid [for Andersen] which then made it very difficult really to sell both of our starting centre-backs in one window.
“That’s not to say it wasn’t still an outside possibility that we got to the right number but then Chadi Riad got injured. That doesn’t look quite as bad as it seems but it still left us very light and really made it impossible for us to consider at that point.”
