Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was left scratching his head by the lack of interest in midfielder Eberechi Eze during the transfer window. (More Football News)
Eze, who joined Crystal Palace from Queens Park Rangers in 2020, has attracted plenty of interest for his performances with the Eagles over the years.
The 26-year-old got his tally up and running for the new Premier League season on Sunday, netting the equaliser in Palace's 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Last season, Eze completed more dribbles (69) and created more chances (54) than anyone else in the Eagles squad, also scoring 11 goals in 27 league appearances.
But another one of Palace's top performers, Michael Olise, secured a move to Bayern Munich in a £50million switch, with Parish relieved they were able to keep at least one of their prized assets for the start of the current campaign.
"I was really worried from a club point of view of losing Michael and Ebbs in the same window," Parish told Sky Sports News.
"We didn't have in Ebbs the interest that I thought we would have.
"I was astounded. Genuinely astounded. I mean, the guy's just an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person."
Palace did have plenty of interest in defender Marc Guehi and rejected multiple bids from Newcastle, the latest of which reached £65m.
Guehi impressed for England at Euro 2024 in the absence of Manchester United defender Harry Maguire, starting every game on their way to the final.
Parish was expecting Guehi to leave Selhurst Park during the transfer window, but with Joachim Andersen returning to Fulham on a permanent transfer and an injury to new arrival Chadi Riad, forced him to alter his plans.
"I don't think the window worked out exactly the same format that we thought it would," Parish added.
"Maybe we thought at the beginning it'd be more likely that Marc Guehi went and we kept Joachim Andersen.
"We accepted that bid [for Andersen] which then made it very difficult really to sell both of our starting centre-backs in one window."
The Magpies' attempts to sign Guehi rolled on for most of the window, with the Eagles standing firm on their valuation having earned sizeable fees for Olise and Andersen.
Parish was able to welcome eight new faces to Selhurst Park, including the permanent arrival of Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah and the loan transfer for Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah on the final day of the window.
But the Eagles chairman is all too aware that he will not be able to hold on to Guehi, and his other star players, for too long amid the financial powers from the clubs in the division and across Europe.
"We're proud of the fact that Michael Olise's gone to Bayern Munich," said Parish.
"We want to be selling to the top clubs, or to clubs like Newcastle who've got great aspirations and have recently been in the Champions League.
"So we have to manage all of those things. We won't get really great young talent to come to us if they think they're going to be stuck."
"We want to be playing in the Champions League. The reality is we don't right now.
"That's what players want to achieve in their career and we respect that and we respect the fact that sometimes we're going to be a pathway to that."
