Steve Parish and Oliver Glasner offered differing perspectives on the uncertain future of Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi.
The centre-back has just one year remaining on his deal at Selhurst Park and is therefore set to leave for free next summer.
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With Palace already losing Eberechi Eze to Arsenal, a Guehi departure would deliver another huge blow for the FA Cup winners.
And speaking after a 1-0 win against Fredrikstad FK in the first leg of their Conference League play-off tie, Glasner insisted he must stay.
“I just know if Marc leaves and is not available for Fredrikstad, we will have big troubles, that’s pretty clear,” he said in his press conference.
“We can’t register anyone so, from my side, he has to stay.
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“We played with Jeff Lerma at the back today, he’s a midfield player,” Glasner added. “We have no centre-back available at the moment.
“And if Marc leaves… I will try my boots because I was a centre-back and this could be a good option, I will think about it.”
However, speaking to Channel 5, chairman Parish hinted that the club may have to sell Guehi in order to meet UEFA rules and regulations.
“If Marc wants to sign a contract, then he can stay. If he doesn’t want to sign a contract, then we have to look at it. It’s a difficult situation.
“Every club like us, and particularly if you’re in Europe, the financial rules are a lot tighter than the Premier League. Everybody has to sell players to comply with the rules.
“So, players leaving on a free is not an ideal situation for the football club, I’m not going to pretend that it is. So, that’s a situation we’ll have to look at in the next 11 days.”
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What does the future hold for Guehi?
Guehi has been one of Palace’s most important players since signing from Chelsea in 2021.
He has featured 158 times for the Eagles across all competitions and wore the armband in their FA Cup final win over Manchester City.
However, his consistency and quality for Palace has attracted interest from Premier League champions Liverpool throughout the summer.
The Reds have held exploratory talks for Guehi in their bid to provide Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate with extra competition.
Palace value the England international at around £40million, months after rejecting a £70m bid from Tottenham.
But talkSPORT understands that Guehi is willing to see out the final months of his contract in south London.
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After their Community Shield win against Liverpool, Parish admitted that they may have to sell the 25-year-old.
Guehi then played in the 0-0 draw at Chelsea on the Premier League opening weekend and appeared to blank Glasner at full-time.
However, he returned to the starting XI for the visit of Fredrikstad as Palace pushed towards the Conference League league phase.
The second leg of their play-off round will be played on August 28, with the main draw taking place the following day.
