'Genuinely astounded' - Crystal Palace stunned by Eberechi Eze interest

Robin Bairner

4 Sept 2024 08:06 BST
3 min read

Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze celebrates scoring against Chelsea — © IMAGO

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish claims that he is “genuinely astonished” that there was not more serious interest in winger Eberechi Eze during the summer transfer window.

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Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool were rumoured to be primed to make a move for Eze, 26, who had a £60 million (€71m) release club in his contract until 16 August.

Neither club triggered that figure and while there were later reports that a £68m (€80.5m) bid could be launched later in the window, no move was ultimately made. Much to the astonishment of Parish, who saw Michael Olise sign for Bayern Munich.

Current ETV

Eberechi Eze

M, AM (C)

C. Palace

Eberechi Eze

M, AM (C)

C. Palace

ETV Range

€37.2M - €62M

Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “I was really worried from a club point of view of losing Michael and Ebbs in the same window and we didn't have in Ebbs the interest that I thought we would have.

“I was astounded. Genuinely astounded. I mean, the guy's just an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person.”

Eze has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €49.6m.

READ MORE: Latest Man City transfer rumours

Why Palace turned down Newcastle’s Guehi bids

Another player who remains at Crystal Palace is Marc Guehi, who was subject to sustained interest from Newcastle. The London club knocked back a bid worth upwards of £65m for the England centre-back.

While Palace want to give their promising youngsters a pathway to the leading clubs, Parish explained why this offer was rejected.

“I don't think the window worked out exactly the same format that we thought it would," Parish admitted. “Maybe we thought at the beginning it'd be more likely that Marc Guehi went and we kept Joachim Andersen.

“We accepted that bid [for Andersen] which then made it very difficult really to sell both of our starting centre-backs in one window.

“That's not to say it wasn't still an outside possibility that we got to the right number but then Chadi Riad got injured. That doesn't look quite as bad as it seems but it still left us very light and really made it impossible for us to consider at that point.

Current ETV

Marc Guéhi

D (C)

C. Palace

Marc Guéhi

D (C)

C. Palace

ETV Range

€29.2M - €48.7M

“We want to be selling to the top clubs, or to clubs like Newcastle who've got great aspirations and have recently been in the Champions League.

“So we have to manage all of those things. We won't get really great young talent to come to us if they think they're going to be stuck.

“We want to be playing in the Champions League. The reality is we don't right now. That's what players want to achieve in their career and we respect that and we respect the fact that sometimes we're going to be a pathway to that.”

Palace had made a slow start to the Premier League season, winning just one point from their opening three matches.