Crystal Palace are unlikely to meet Liverpool’s lofty valuation for centre-back Mamadou Sakho this summer, their chairman has revealed.
Sakho is currently on loan with the Eagles, and has been in excellent form since making the switch to Selhurst Park in January.
Though he is currently sidelined with a knee injury picked up in April’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham, Sakho is seen as a key player by Sam Allardyce, and a priority target.
Liverpool are looking to seal a £30 million deal for Sakho at the end of the season, with Napoli, AS Roma and Southampton joining Palace in the pursuit.
But speaking to BT Sport, Palace chairman Steve Parish suggested the club would be “sensible” in their advances for the France international.
“We’d love to [keep him], he’s been a massive, massive part of getting us to this stage,” he said, with Palace set to beat the drop this season.
“He’s a leader, he’s a fantastic character, good player, we would love to try and make that deal happen.
“But it takes two sides to make a deal and everybody has got to be reasonable.
“So if we can do something sensible we would be happy to do it.”
Specifically addressing Liverpool’s demands for the upcoming window, Parish vowed to buck the trend of breaking the club’s transfer record.
Palace have done so on three separate occasions over the past two summers, signing Yohan Cabaye (£10 million), Andros Townsend (£13 million) and Christian Benteke (£27 million).
“We’ve got an amount of business we need to do in the summer,” he explained.
“We broke all of our transfer records in the last two windows in terms of what we spent on individual players, the amount spent.
“We spent £40 million in January window, we topped the money league, and we can’t carry on doing that.
“So we need to be sensible: it needs a willing buyer and a willing seller.
“I can’t make Liverpool sell him and obviously the player’s put himself in the shop window.
“He’s done no harm to himself or the prospect of Liverpool getting a good deal, so we have to see how that one pans out.”
Reading between the lines with Parish’s comments, it would seem that Palace will remain on the fringes of negotiations for Sakho this summer.
And if Liverpool can’t broker a deal with the likes of Roma or Southampton, they could look to swoop with a cut-price offer.
Fan Comments