Crystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish told Sky Sports yesterday that Newcastle United haven’t met their demands for Marc Guehi.
Newcastle recently submitted a third bid for the 24-year-old (or 23-year-old according to Parish) England centre-back. That bid was believed to be in the region of £60 million including add-ons which is £5 million shy of the Eagles’ valuation.
Considering Newcastle reportedly started off by bidding around £45 million, Palace have done well to get it up to £60 million, but that’s just not good enough for Parish.
Not content with potentially angering Newcastle’s hierarchy by publicly speaking about the deal to Sky Sports, Parish then went to speak with TalkSPORT’s Jim White and rubbed more salt into the wound.
Parish expects Guehi to be a Palace player at the start of the season
Parish told White that he expects Guehi will be a Palace player at the start of the season, but he does almost concede that the deal could still be done.
“They’re a very respectful club, they do things in the right way, but they’re not giving us a decision to make at the moment, so if they give us a decision to make then we’ll have to have a think about it. That may be the one change, possibly, that you might see, but right now I expect him to be a Palace player at the start of the season.”
There’s plenty to unpack here – the fact that Parish has the gall to talk about a club doing things the right way while he’s there blabbing to anybody who will listen about a deal that’s still in progress is absolutely crazy. Maybe take a leaf out of Newcastle’s book, Steve.
Will Newcastle still want to deal with Parish after yesterday?
The “not giving us a decision to make” seems to be his go-to line regarding Newcastle and Marc Guehi, and you know, that’s fine, it helps to have a catchphrase.
It does sound like there is a deal to be done here though, regardless of Parish’s antics. He doesn’t sound confident that he can keep hold of Guehi, although it does sound like he’s going to drag it out to the very end.
So it sounds like Newcastle won’t have Marc Guehi in the squad for Saturday’s Premier League opener, but there’s still a chance he could be a Newcastle player before the window shuts at the end of the month.
The question really is, how are the board going to react to Parish going around talking about the deal to anyone with a microphone?
