On Sunday, Marc Guéhi made what he believed would be his final appearance for Crystal Palace. On Monday, his club accepted a £35M transfer offer from Liverpool and the player underwent his medical ahead of a move to join the defending Premier League champions.
Then, Palace pulled out, refusing to give final sign-off after failing to sign a replacement they had had all summer to bring in—a summer where Guéhi had behaved impeccably, training and playing for Palace as their club captain in the belief
he would be granted his dream move.
Despite having shown professionalism throughout the summer, it’s hardly shocking that today The Guardian say sources have told them Guéhi is angry about how things went down and extremely unhappy that Palace decided to block his departure at the last second.
Meanwhile in The Times it is said Guéhi is even more determined that he will under no circumstances consider signing a contract extension and so will depart the club on a free at the end of the season at the latest, though there is no suggestion he might now go on strike.
However, it is suggested that the player is currently trying to decide if he will relinquish the captaincy, while manager Oliver Glasner—widely seen as responsible for Palace’s decision to block the move—is also expected to depart at the end of season at the latest.
Since the close of the transfer window on Monday evening, Glasner has already been linked with the vacant Bayer Leverkusen job in Germany. In the Premier League the manager has been rumoured to hold interest in the Manchester United job should it come open.
In the short term, though, Palace have kept their player. An unhappy player they’ll likely lose on a free along with the manager who blocked his departure. But they’ve kept him. It’s far less clear whether, over the course of the season, that will turn out to be a net positive.
