Newcastle United send Marc Guehi message as Crystal Palace provide official update
Eddie Howe insists Newcastle United are not afraid to walk away from deals amid their pursuit of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi.
The Magpies are understood to have tabled a fourth bid for the Euro 2024 star, worth a reported £65million including add-ons.
Although United prefer to handle negotiations in private, the deal went public this week when Palace chairman Steve Parish spoke to multiple media outlets at a Premier League launch event on Tuesday.
Parish hailed Guehi as a superstar and wants superstar money in order to sell. It remains to be seen what Parish deems as an acceptable fee.
But Howe, speaking to the press ahead of his side’s Premier League opener against Southampton on Saturday, has already sent an indirect warning to the Eagles. Simply: Newcastle won’t be held to ransom.
The United head coach said: “There’s two ways to look at that, if you believe in the deal and player, and it’s still within your financial structure then yes, 100% [stay calm]. But there are times where you go ‘no that’s too much’, and we’ve done that plenty of times in the past two-and-half-years.
“Sometimes you wouldn’t find out about that and you’ll have to switch targets. I’ve given you answer on both really because it depends on the deal and what money you have to spend for that to happen.”
Howe added: “We have (walked away) many times in my time here especially when there was a Newcastle tax on any deal. We would phone up and the price would double. We would say we are not going down that road and not overpaying for players.
“That has changed slightly. People have seen we will not pay silly fees for players. It has returned to normality.”
And it stands, a deal looks no closer. Oliver Glasner provided an update on Guehi on Friday afternoon with the Crystal Palace boss expecting him to be available for Sunday’s opening game away to Brentford.
“Well yes, Marc trained today with us, we talked together,” Glasner said during his pre-match press conference. “I have no other information, I will have to look at my bank account to see if something has come in but it doesn’t look like [it] so we plan for the game with Marc.
“He’s our player, our captain and I can’t tell you anything else.”