Oliver Glasner expects to decide in the coming weeks whether he will sign a new contract at Crystal Palace and has said Marc Guéhi could be sold this month if his “threshold” is met.
Glasner is the bookmakers’ early favourite to be the permanent replacement for Ruben Amorim at Manchester United. The Austrian’s contract expires this summer and the ambitious 51-year-old is understood to be open then to joining United or another big club.
Glasner held discussions with the Palace chair, Steve Parish, over a new deal this season but talks were put on ice during a hectic run of fixtures, the FA Cup winners playing two games a week since the end of August owing to European commitments. He revealed more talks are expected after Palace begin their FA Cup defence against Macclesfield on Saturday but offered no guarantees he will stay.
“I think in the next weeks we will intensify the talks,” Glasner said. “Everyone gets three days off after Macclesfield and then we have to target four regular weeks and in those weeks we will intensify the talks and I expect to find a final decision.”
Asked whether the uncertainty over his future was a distraction, he said: “I don’t really care about it, because I can’t affect it if there are rumours, speculation. That’s why I don’t want to respond to it, because I can sign today, or a player can sign today, a contract extension and leave in summer … The length of a contract in these times doesn’t say anything about your future.”
Manchester City are weighing up a bid for Guéhi, with Palace thought to want £40m for their captain despite his contract expiring in the summer. Glasner conceded that the England defender’s future was out of his hands. “Everybody wants that he plays for Crystal Palace, signs a new contract and stays here for ever,” he said.
“On the other side, there’s the situation that the contract ends in the summer and if somebody is coming, there will be a moment when the club says: ‘Now the financial issue is more important than the sport issue.’ We have to do it and try to get the best. That’s why I’m always saying: ‘I don’t know.’ Because this is different.
“There will be a threshold where the club has to say [sell] … If the player says: ‘I want to leave’ and the money is above the threshold, it will happen. I’m not so naive not to know that if a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”
Injury-hit Palace will be without Nathaniel Clyne and Jefferson Lerma against Aston Villa on Wednesday, although Chris Richards will be back among the substitutes after a foot injury. Glasner said he was in “constant discussion” with Parish over adding reinforcements in January after signing Brennan Johnson from Tottenham for a club record £35m but denied that his future could depend on how much backing he gets in the transfer market.
“Believe me, nothing that happens in the transfer window, nothing, affects my decision, in both directions,” he said. Glasner also said Romain Esse is expected to join Coventry on loan until the end of the season.
