Marc Guehi’s private jet was initially forced to abandon its landing at Manchester Airport on Sunday morning ahead of his medical with Manchester City.
His plane was forced to abort its landing at 8.42am and had to loop around the city centre before touching down ahead of his £20million move from Crystal Palace.
The switch has angered Palace boss Oliver Glasner, who the club are now considering sacking after he chose to speak out about the board abandoning him and his players with their actions.
He said he first found out about team captain Guehi being sold at 10.30am on Friday.
‘Selling our captain one day before a game – there is no understanding for this,’ Glasner said on Saturday.
Palace feel they had little choice but to sell Guehi rather than risk losing £20m if the defender had left for free at the end of the season.
The club are adamant they abided by Glasner’s wishes in the last transfer window, when they pulled out of a £35m deal to sell him to Liverpool on Deadline Day.
The Eagles’ FA Cup-winning head coach further fanned the flames after a turbulent 24 hours in the wake of the Austrian’s devastating press conference revelations regarding his imminent departure, and that of Manchester City-bound skipper Marc Guehi.
Palace are without a win in 10 games and Glasner clearly tried to prove a point about his threadbare squad by refusing to make a substitution in a damaging defeat at the Stadium of Light.
The 51-year-old insisted his strong words were in the best interests of the club — but big question marks now hang over whether he will make it through to the end of the campaign after such a damning indictment of the Selhurst Park regime.
Glasner wouldn’t rule out Palace being dragged into a relegation battle, and he said: ‘The players left their hearts out on the pitch and now they’ve had their hearts torn out twice, the other time before the game.
‘It’s tough to survive. You feel that you’re being abandoned, with no support. We’ve played with the same players and it’s been like that for weeks with the bench made up of kids. The players need to be protected and it’s unfair on them.’
Giving further details on when he was told about Guehi’s £20million move to City, a clearly frustrated Glasner added: ‘The first I heard was 10.30am yesterday, the day before a game. It’s the worst thing you could have. Nobody told us until then and I had to stand in front of the group and say the captain’s not playing tomorrow.
‘That’s why I’m being so direct now because I have to protect the players. For me it feels like if we get enough points not to be relegated then it’s fine. Jean-Philippe Mateta couldn’t train on Thursday because his knee was too swollen but now he has to play 95 minutes against a very physical team. This is what I mean when I say we need support. Everybody’s known it for months.
‘I don’t need any support. Palace is fine to end the season like this, with Oliver Glasner or another manager I don’t know, I don’t care. Saying it behind closed doors makes no sense. It’s maybe the last try for things to get done.
‘If you continue to think we can carry on like this, Crystal Palace will get the bill. Not me.’
