Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says he is “genuinely astounded” by the lack of interest in star midfielder Eberechi Eze during the summer transfer window.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has revealed that he was “astounded” by the lack of interest in star midfielder Eberechi Eze during the summer transfer window.
The 26-year-old was alleged to have had plenty of admirers in the Premier League, with champions Manchester City claimed to have a ‘long-standing admiration’ for the England international.
Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal were also credited with an interest in Eze over this summer, but an exit from Selhurst Park ultimately failed to materialise.
Eze, who notched up 11 goals and six assists in 31 games last season, was understood to have had a £60m release clause in his Palace contract, which expires at the end of last month, but no clubs made a concrete approach for the Eagles star.
Palace were relieved to retain the services of Eze after allowing fellow star attacker Michael Olise to join Bayern Munich for £50m earlier in the window.
Parish has admitted that he “really worried” at one stage of the summer transfer window that Palace would lose both Olise and Eze, but he was eventually left stunned by the lack of interest in the latter.
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Parish “astounded” by lack of interest in “outstanding” Eze
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Parish said: “I was really worried from a club point of view of losing Michael and Ebbs (Eze) in the same window and we didn’t have in Ebbs the interest that I thought we would have.
“I was astounded. Genuinely astounded. I mean, the guy’s just an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person.”
One player who was the subject of several offers in the summer was Palace defender and captain Marc Guehi, who remains at Selhurst Park despite strong interest from Newcastle United.
The Magpies allegedly has as many as four bids for Guehi turned down by the Eagles, including their final offer worth a club-record £65m inclusive of add-ons.
Parish has admitted that he expected Guehi to leave Palace, but the £30m departure of Joachim Andersen to Fulham and the injury picked up by new signing Chadi Riad complicated matters.
“I don’t think the window worked out exactly the same format that we thought it would,” said Parish. “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.
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Parish: ‘Palace want to sell players to top clubs’
“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.”
Newcastle ultimately failed to meet Palace’s asking price for Guehi, but Parish is aware that he will not be able keep hold of the England international, as well as other star players, for too long.
“We’re proud of the fact that Michael Olise’s gone to Bayern Munich,” Parish added. “We want to be selling to the top clubs, or to clubs like Newcastle who’ve got great aspirations and have recently been in the Champions League.
“So we have to manage all of those things. We won’t get really great young talent to come to us if they think they’re going to be stuck.”
Parish continued: “We want to be playing in the Champions League. The reality is we don’t right now. That’s what players want to achieve in their career and we respect that and we respect the fact that sometimes we’re going to be a pathway to that.”
Both Eze and Guehi have played in each of Palace’s opening three Premier League games of the new season, with the former scoring the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Chelsea last weekend.