Steve Parish backtracks on Crystal Palace promise as Liverpool transfer stopped - opinion
.png?width=96&crop=1:1,smart)
Steve Parish had promised to help Crystal Palace players further their careers but his backtrack is a relief for the London club.
Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi is to remain at Selhurst Park this season after a Deadline Day transfer move to Liverpool has collapsed at the final hurdle.
The Reds had agreed a £35 million deal with the London outfit and Guehi completed a medical in London today ahead of making the move to Anfield. However, that transfer being confirmed had always been dependent on Crystal Palace signing a replacement.
The Eagles had been linked with several candidates to do that, the most recent being Brighton centre-back Igor Julio. That deal fell through on Monday with West Ham entering talks and hijacking the move, resulting in a serious knock-on effect for the Guehi transfer.
Crystal Palace pull out of Marc Guehi transfer
Speaking on Sunday, Oliver Glasner had said: “We have an agreement that we just sell Marc if we have the right replacement in. We wanted to have this replacement at the beginning of the pre-season to be independent of this situation. This was the 9th of July and today in the 31st of August and there is no replacement in the building. It’s clear, one part of the agreement is not fulfilled, we can’t sell Marc.”
Even with the Igor deal stuttering, Guehi’s move to Liverpool continued to progress with a deal sheet submitted to allow the Reds to finalise the deal after the 7 pm deadline. However, The Athletic journalist David Ornstein now reports that the move has been called off.
Taking to social media platform X, he wrote: “Marc Guehi set to stay at Crystal Palace despite deal sheet submitted for transfer to Liverpool. 25yo did #LFC medical + agreement reached between clubs at £35m & with centre-back on 5yr contract. But #CPFC replacement issues stopped move @TheAthleticFC.”
Steve Parish backtracks on transfer promise
Guehi has been praised for his professionalism throughout the saga but may be fuming after it appears that Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has backtracked on a promise made earlier this summer.
In July, Parish told The Rest is Football podcast that he would help Eagles players progress their careers should big bids come in. He said: “The group are amazing and they love being there, but people want to progress their careers. Part of coming to Crystal Palace, sometimes, is the promise we make.
“We are part of your journey. You look at Michael [Olise] who has gone to Bayern, you look at all these players that have gone on. It’s about managing change [at] football clubs. You can’t cling on to everybody.”
In other news, Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner tipped to join Bundesliga club if Marc Guehi sold to Liverpool.