The transfer window rumour mill is a fierce and tricky phenomenon that all clubs have to navigate and for those in the Premier League the spotlight shines even brighter.
From June until September, even club captains and long-standing loyalists are subject to gossip about their motivations and potential career paths, meaning players and managers must stay ahead of the curve to try and quell speculation lest it lead to distraction.
Newcastle are finding this out the hard way with their ongoing Alexander Isak saga and Eddie Howe even called for a resolution after his team’s 0-0 draw with Aston Villa on Saturday.
Similarly, Crystal Palace are finding themselves drawn into the mire surrounding key players Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi and any form of discontent is blown up and assigned a spot in the latest round of rumours signalling a player’s desire to leave.
Such is the case with Guehi and a standoffish moment with his manager Oliver Glasner following a goalless draw against Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.
An impressive defensive performance saw the Eagles take a point away from Stamford Bridge as Chelsea’s Club World Cup winners failed to capitalise on their possession and ended the match with fewer shots on target than Palace.
The visitors also had a goal disallowed through VAR overruling Eze’s free-kick in which Guehi was judged to have infringed on Moises Caicedo in the Chelsea wall.
After the full-time whistle Glasner approached Guehi on the field and called to his captain two or three times. Guehi looked at Glasner shook his head and went down the tunnel without further acknowledgement. Glasner then spoke to Palace forward Jean-Philippe Mateta, seemingly about Guehi, with the forward looking equally bemused.
It was a tense moment revealed as part of Sky Sports’ television broadcast but it led to speculation about Guehi’s mindset.
Is he unhappy at Palace? Is a rumoured move to Liverpool more likely now? Has he fallen out with Glasner? Is this the beginning of the end for his time at the club?
Such questions, from a seemingly innocuous moment, are fuel for the transfer rumour mill. They are unavoidable, inevitable, and can be both right on the money and wide of the mark at the same time.
That is because clubs, players, and especially managers don’t speak about transfers until they have been finalised. That secretive nature – out of necessity – helps keep the gossip going. Transfer speculation is big business now, deadline day is a huge event in the season, and some football insiders have made names for themselves by discussing potential moves and deals while ignoring what happens on the pitch.
So, what does Guehi’s dismissal of Glasner tell us about his Crystal Palace future?
Nothing, but also everything.
For Eagles supporters it is a show of frustration at how the match against Chelsea played out. For Liverpool fans who want him to join them, it is confirmation of his discontent at Palace. For Glasner, it is a bump on the road of navigating his way through the transfer window.
“There’s a lot of rumours about Eberechi and Marc Guehi, but I think everyone who watched the game saw they’re 100% with this group,” he told Sky Sports afterwards. “It’s what we expect from our players that they give 100%. We rely on each other, and they proved it in a brilliant way.”
In other words, nothing to speculate about here. Yet that won’t stop the rumour mill from turning.
