Time to move on? - Steve Parish pours hefty bucket of cold water on Newcastle's Marc Guehi dream

Newcastle United's pursuit of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi has dominated the NUFC headlines over the past week or so but have the Magpies been led down the garden path again?

As has been the case with several names this summer, reports surrounding Newcastle's chase of England centre-back Marc Guehi has fluctuated between almost done and miles away almost hourly, but there has often been an air of optimism that the deal would get done.

In fact, it was fully expected that Newcastle's third bid that they submitted recently, would be the one that would get accepted. While it was short of Palace's £65 million asking price, it wasn't far off it with the bid believed to have been £55 million plus £5 million in add-ons taking it up to £60 million.

There's a feeling that if Palace were to reject that bid then the Magpies would move on, and now Palace co-owner Steve Parish has spoken to Sky Sports to suggest it might be time for Newcastle to throw in the towel.

Steve Parish has activated his bitch switch

Keith Downie posted the quotes from Parish on his X account this afternoon which doesn't make good reading for Newcastle fans.

“Nobody has got to the valuation yet. If you want a superstar player you need to pay superstar money.

“It’s not near the point where we have to make a decision.

“We love having him and would love to keep him.

“If someone else wants to have him they need to make it really difficult for us. He’s a generational talent.”

If this deal falls through we will get uber petty

It's probably a case of Parish trying to make a point more than trying to tank the deal, but it's a bloody weird thing to come out and say with things being so far advanced.

If it's true that Newcastle are still £5 million away from Crystal Palace's valuation, the club must now decide whether to give in and give them the remaining £5 million, which could impact their pursuit of a right winger, or simply move on.

It feels a bit late in the day to walk away now, as we said yesterday, but journalists believe that we will do it if we need to. Alternatives are being looked at and if the deal collapses now then we wish nothing but the worst of luck for Palace this season. We hope you get relegated. We can be childish if we want to, and we do want to be.