Steve Parish didn't mince words. If Liverpool seriously thought a £50 million bid submitted five days before the transfer deadline was going to prise Crystal Palace's top scorer away from Selhurst Park, they were kidding themselves.
"A club came in and, with the amount of money they bid, they couldn't seriously think in that market it was going to get done at that level," Parish told The Athletic. "And then they didn't come back in for him."
That last part is the real story. Liverpool sold players for £90 million and offered roughly half that for a 28-year-old who finished last season as Palace's leading scorer with 21 goals across all competitions. When the offer was rejected, they walked away rather than improve it. That's not a transfer strategy — that's a lowball and a shrug.
The agent's public meltdown didn't help anyone
Ismaila Sarr's agent, Diomansy Kamara, responded to the collapse of the deal by going public with accusations against Palace, while Sarr himself wiped all references to the club from his social media. It was messy, and Parish clearly has no patience for it.
"I don't care what he thinks in the context of accusations against us," Parish said. "The good ones would be managing those expectations with the player and not making it everybody else's fault. It's their job to get that bid earlier."
Hard to argue with that. A bid arriving with five days left in the window, at a price the selling club finds insulting, was always going to end this way. Kamara directing frustration at Palace rather than examining the timing and the valuation is a deflection, not an explanation.
Sarr's season has stalled — and so has the saga
The cruel footnote here is that Sarr hasn't even been available to prove his value this term. An ankle injury has restricted him to two substitute appearances since August. A player who bagged four goals at the World Cup and 21 last season for Palace is currently watching from the treatment room.
Palace's top-scorer market and attacking output odds are worth a second look while Sarr remains sidelined — a 21-goal contributor missing from a squad that wasn't exactly overloaded with firepower to begin with is a meaningful gap.
Sarr has at least been included in Patrick Vieira's first Senegal squad, so the fitness picture is improving. Whether he returns to find himself still a Palace player in January — or whether Liverpool, or anyone else, comes back with a number that actually reflects what he's worth — is the question that hasn't gone away.
Parish's position is clear: the right bid at the right time gets the deal done. Neither condition was met in August.
