Oliver Glasner has shared more detail on the conversation he had with Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish that resulted in Marc Guehi’s transfer to Liverpool falling through.
Guehi had looked set to complete a move to Anfield on deadline day of the summer window, having undergone a medical after the two sides reached an agreement on a fee, but the deal was cancelled at the last moment.
Liverpool has been feeling the impact of that decision, with Giovanni Leoni out for the season after rupturing his ACL on his debut for the club, leaving Arne Slot with just Joe Gomez as the only senior back-up to Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, with the latter having found consistency hard to come by so far.
Parish has since spoken out on the decision to halt Guehi’s move to Liverpool, with Palace’s first season in European competition playing a big role in the decision to keep the England international.
Reports at the time had suggested that Glasner had threatened to resign as manager if Guehi was allowed to leave. The Austrian has since dismissed those claims, although he did seem to criticize his club’s approach to the transfer market following the weekend defeat to Manchester United.
Glasner invited further questions over his own future when he told reporters:
“If you play for the first time in your club’s history in European football, I think the right answer is invest and not save, and we saved.”
He has now expanded on those comments, as well as the advice he gave to Parish on Guehi during the summer.
“I know the team, I know what they are capable of, and I know maybe what they are not capable of,” Glasner said on Tuesday.
“I know how many games we have to play, I know that players are leaving for AFCON, and I have to judge all these situations, and then I’m talking to the chairman and to the board and giving them my advice.
“I told you with Marc Guehi, everybody said I threatened to step down, it’s completely wrong. I just said if you sell Marc Guehi and we don’t have the right replacement, we could struggle.
“If you are fine with this for Crystal Palace – not for Oliver Glasner, never – for Crystal Palace, sell him. If you don’t want that situation, you have to keep him, and the chairman decided that Marc stays.”