Oliver Glasner has said Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi could be sold this month if one of the defender’s suitors meets the club’s “threshold” for a deal.
The Palace manager also suggested his own future would be resolved in the coming weeks.
Guehi is out of contract in the summer and there is an amicable understanding between Palace and the England international that he would see out the final months of his contract and leave as a free agent at the end of the campaign.
However, The Athletic reported on January 6 that Manchester City are weighing up whether to move for Guehi this month after injuries to defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias in their 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday.
Palace blocked Guehi’s proposed deadline day move to Liverpool at the eleventh hour last summer and the Premier League champions retain a strong interest in the 25-year-old, who is also being monitored by overseas clubs, including Barcelona.
“I’m not naive,” said Glasner on Tuesday. “If a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.
“If you’re just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay. The chairman will tell you the same. But it’s not one-dimensional. If you see the financial situation, it’s very important.
“Everybody wants him to play for Crystal Palace, sign a new contract and stay here forever. That’s what everybody will tell you.
“There’s the situation that his contract ends in the summer and if somebody comes…there will be a moment when the club says: now the financial issue is more important than the sports issue.
“We have to do it and try to get the best one (replacement) we can get to be as successful as possible. That’s where we are.
“There will be a threshold where the club has to say it will happen, as long as Marc says I want to leave, because the final decision is always with the player.
“The chairman rejected many offers in the summer because we want to play a successful season and wanted to win the Community Shield. Therefore, Marc is important, and then he rejected the offer.
“The threshold at that time, the money we got offered was not above it. Maybe it was close, but it was not above.
“If somebody had arrived and said, we pay you 80 million for Marc and Marc said: ‘I want to go’. Marc wouldn’t be a Crystal Palace player.”
Glasner, who has said “it makes no sense” to discuss the possibility of succeeding Ruben Amorim at Manchester United, is also out of contract in the summer but says he expects talks with the club to “intensify” following Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie against Macclesfield.
“Everyone gets three days off after Macclesfield and then we have four regular weeks (without a midweek game). In these weeks we will intensify the talks and I expect then to find the final decision,” he said.