Marc Guech will be sold during this transfer window. If a proper bid arrives, Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish will acknowledge and provide encouragement Liverpool can sign centre-backs this month. The 25-year-old England centre-back has reached the final 12 months of his contract. This means that the risk of the palace will lose the skipper next summer.
The club rejected Newcastle’s third approach worth £70 million last summer for the captain following Joachim Anderson’s £30 million departure to Fulham. Liverpool and Chelsea remain keen to secure Guech’s service with the Reds, which is lacking in the Reds’ senior centre half, after selling Jarrell Kuanza to Bayer Leverkusen for £35 million. They were reluctant to meet Guehi’s £50 million price tag, but that could now fall.
Speaking in Wembley’s mixed zone following Community Shield’s penalty shootout victory over Liverpool, Parrish questioned whether Nguyeh would leave for an acceptable bid this month.
“Yes, yes,” replied the palace chief. “Of course, for players of that caliber to leave for free, that’s a problem for football clubs. Unfortunately, there’s no doubt.
“Joachim went, but we couldn’t afford to lose both of them. Then we made another bid in January, and that was a difficult decision too. We have to see what happens. It requires a new contract or some kind of conclusion.”
Elsewhere, the final hero of the FA Cup, Eberechi Eze, is on Arsenal’s radar. Parrish continued: “In the end, people trade players. That’s what the football club does. Of course, if you don’t care about tomorrow and put off all of that, we’re a great team.
“Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily that simple. This year, we’re paying a lot of transfer fees to players who already have them, so this year there’s a lot of exits. When you see the fee, there’s just nuts.
“We have to look. We do everything we can. We don’t stop working. But as long as people are here or are here, it depends. That’s the right decision for the football club, and there’s a change for them. But we have to make something smart.”
Manager Oliver Glasner expressed his dissatisfaction this summer with a slow pace of transfers, with only two new players secured, including a reserve goalkeeper.
“I admire Oliver very much,” continued Parrish. “He just wants to win the trophy. He doesn’t want to do it. I think someone from the football club should do it. I have to worry, the Premier League is crazy, people spend it. Finance risk.
“So I have to see everything else, but don’t think I want to do anything other than support them and do everything I can.
“At some point, you have to recycle your team. We will do everything we can to give us the best chances we can in the coming weeks. It’s really difficult. We will do everything we can to give ourselves the best chances.
The Palace will hear the outcome of the appeal today (Monday) to the Swiss sports court, following the UEFA decision last month and the UEFA decision to entrust them to the Conference League this season.
“It’s good to put it behind us, but we don’t want it to come across as a deadly thing of any kind,” the parish added. “We are determined to get the right results, and if we don’t get the right results, we need to look at the steps that follow.
“But after Friday, I don’t understand how we can’t do that competition. It’s up to the judge to decide. We trust them. Let’s take a look.”
