Embarrassing grandstanding from Crystal Palace owner on Marc Guehi move to Newcastle United | OneFootball

Steve Parish has chosen to go public on Marc Guehi and Newcastle United.

The Crystal Palace co-owner has always been keen to get himself personally into the media, far more than your average Premier League club owner.

This time deciding to speak to Sky Sports.

I’ll show you below some of what Steve Parish had to say about Marc Guehi and Newcastle United today, then follow that up with my thoughts on what he said.

Steve Parish speaking to Sky Sports – 13 August 2024:

“Nobody has got to the [Crystal Palace] valuation yet [on Marc Guehi].

“If you want a superstar player you need to pay superstar money.

“This is a player we love a lot.

“If we start the season with Marc Guehi we will be a better team, no doubt.

“It (offers received) is not near the point where we have to make a decision.

“We will cross these bridges when we come to them.

“He is homegrown.

“He is in most people’s team of the Euros.

“An excellent lad, we love him at the club.

“And if somebody wants to make that otherwise, they have got to make it really difficult for us and at the moment that is not the situation we’re in.

‘Marc is as decent human being and footballer as you could ever possibly meet. We all know the situation and we don’t need to be having discussions about it.

‘Marc is absolutely loyal to Crystal Palace and Marc wants to progress his career.

“Of course he does.

“And if the right opportunity is there and it is right for us, it might be something that he might be interested in.

“But he’s certainly not putting any pressure on the club, whatsoever.’

I find this totally embarrassing from the Crystal Palace co-owner. Grandstanding of the highest order, in terms of wanting himself personally to be in the limelight, plus of course other VERY transparent reasons.

So as things stand, since news broke a week past Friday of Newcastle United trying to sign Marc Guehi, there have now been three offers made. The third and most recent, has been widely reported as £55m transfer fee, plus potentially £5m more in future add-ons if certain targets are met. This latest bid reported to not be accepted AND it widely reported now that Crystal Palace want £70m.

Hmmm, I wonder who is feeding these exact details/amounts to the media?

Who would benefit the most if the price paid for Marc Guehi goes higher and higher?

A tricky one isn’t it, not!

This has dragged on now a week and a half or so and suddenly Steve Parish decides to go very public on Marc Guehi and Newcastle United (he doesn’t mention NUFC by name but obviously everybody knows who he is talking about). Why now? Could it just possibly be that with only 17 days to go until the transfer window closes, Steve Parish is now telling every other club what he wants for Marc Guehi, as well as bricking it, worried now that if Newcastle United pull out, Palace could be in a very tricky position.

Parish fails to mention that Marc Guehi has repeatedly refused to sign another contract, which has put Palace in the position where they are absolutely panicking that if he doesn’t leave this window, he would get to January with only 18 months left on his Palace deal and the club in such a weak bargaining position.

The Palace owner also ‘forgetting’ to mention that Chelsea have a large sell-on clause, meaning that Palace are desperate to inflate the transfer fee in order to get a sizeable amount themselves for their best player.

Steve Parish is playing with fire and tempting fate.

I do hope Marc Guehi ends up at Newcastle United but if he ends up staying at Palace and leaves for nothing in summer 2026, I would laugh my head off.