Newcastle told to pay ‘superstar money’ after £55m bid leaves club ‘nowhere near’ selling defender
Crystal Palace chairman and co-owner Steve Parish has told Newcastle United that they have to pay “superstar money” to sign Marc Guehi.
Newcastle are prioritising the signing of England international Guehi after signing Lewis Hall from Chelsea, Lloyd Kelly from Bournemouth, John Ruddy from Birmingham City, Odysseas Vlachodimos from Nottingham Forest, and William Osula from Sheffield United.
Eddie Howe will go into the 2024/25 season without Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman, leaving him light on centre-backs, even with the addition of Kelly.
He is desperate for a new centre-back to come into the starting XI, either to play alongside Dan Burn or Fabian Schar.
Guehi would be an outstanding addition for the Magpies and a monumental loss for Crystal Palace.
He starred for the Eagles last season and started all but one of England’s matches at this summer’s European Championship, impressing next to John Stones.
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Newcastle and Palace are in talks over a deal to send Guehi to St James’ Park and the latter are not feeling the pressure to sell for anything less than their reported £60million asking price – which is three times what they paid to sign him from Chelsea in 2021.
The Geordies reportedly made a third bid to sign the 24-year-old on Monday, believed to be worth in the region of £55m.
Marc Guehi’s ‘wishes must be taken into account’ amid Newcastle interest
Parish certainly did not close the door on Guehi joining Newcastle when asked about it, but emphasised his desire to keep the former Chelsea defender.
“Nobody has got to the valuation yet,” he said. “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 him, we’ll be a better team.
“Everybody’s wishes have to be taken into account but we are nowhere near the point where we have to make a decision. We will cross these bridges as and when we come to them.
“We love having him and would love to keep him, and if somebody wants to make that otherwise they have got to make it really difficult for us; at the moment, that’s not the situation we’re in.
“We all know the situation, we don’t need to have discussions about it.
“He is absolutely loyal to Crystal Palace, Marc wants to progress his career and if the right opportunity is there and it’s right for us, it’s something he might be interested in.
“He has certainly not put any pressure on the club.”
Parish’s side have already sold one of last season’s young stars, with Michael Olise completing a move to Bayern Munich earlier this summer.
Along with Guehi, Adam Wharton and Eberechi Eze, they possess some highly sought-after players and Parish insisted it was vital that the club continued to work hard to strike the right balance on recruitment.
He added: “What we’ve got to do is manage the cycle of players. We need to be at a point where we haven’t got too many going at once, we’ve always got a replacement lined up and we’re not thin on the ground when people go.
“Of course it’s massively challenging, it’s a 24/7 job. We just keep doing the work and hoping that we can carry on improving.””
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