Newcastle will need to pay “superstar money” if they want to sign England defender Marc Guehi, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has said.
Guehi is a player the Magpies are interested in after he was one of the most impressive performers for England at this summer’s European Championship.
However, the clubs have not yet been able to agree a fee and Parish insists no one has met Palace’s valuation of the player yet.
“If you want a superstar player, you’ve got to pay superstar money,” he told Sky Sports.
“This is a player we love a lot. If we start the season with him, we’ll be a better team, no doubt.
“We’re nowhere near the point where we need to make a decision. We cross these bridges as and when we come to them.
“What I would say about Marc is he’s homegrown, he’s 23 (24) years old, he was in most people’s team of the Euros, (he’s an) excellent lad.
“We love having him at the club and we would love to keep him at the club. So 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.”
Asked if he was convinced Guehi would remain happy at Palace and not agitate for a move, Parish said: “Marc Guehi is as decent a human being and a footballer as you could ever possibly hope to meet.
“We all know the situation, we don’t need to be having discussions about it.
“Marc is absolutely loyal to Crystal Palace. Marc wants to progress his career, of course he does and if the right opportunity is there and it’s right for us, I think it’s something that he might be interested in. But he’s certainly not putting any pressure on the club whatsoever.”
Palace 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.”
