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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Marc Mayo

Vicente Guaita hits out at Crystal Palace after being left out amid ‘refusal to play’

The ongoing saga between Crystal Palace and Vicente Guaita took another turn ahead of the Eagles’ match with Sheffield United.

As expected, the Spanish goalkeeper was not named in Roy Hodgson’s squad for their Premier League opener having, according to the manager, refused to play during pre-season.

Guaita, 36, is said to want a transfer away from Selhurst Park having lost his place to Sam Johnstone and Remi Matthews was named as the substitute goalkeeper on Saturday.

However, Guaita responded to Palace’s team news announcement on Twitter and appeared to suggest he was being denied the chance to play.

“Where is my name?” he tweeted.

“So how can I play for Palace?”

Eagles boss Hodgson explained the situation regarding the goalkeeper in midweek.

“[Johnstone] is the only choice at the moment because Guaita is disenchanted with the club and has said he would like to move on,” Hodgson told the Scandinavian broadcaster Viaplay.

“He's refused to play in our games so far. A complication is that he has a year's contract.

“It's up to the club to decide, not him. He's made it clear to everybody he doesn't want to be here and compete with Sam Johnstone.

“I can't physically make Guaita play but it's not certain the club will accept his refusal to play and they'll let him go.”

Guaita has one year left on his Palace contract.

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