Liverpool made their approach with just five days remaining before the deadline, but Palace had no intention of selling their leading goalscorer for that fee.
“It’s unfortunate with Ismaila, but that wasn’t really a situation that was of our doing,” Parish told The Athletic.
“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, and then they didn’t come back in for him.
“If you’re selling players for £90m and then you want to bid us half of that for the replacement, it’s fine, you can do it. But it’s not going to happen.”
Sarr had also attracted interest from Galatasaray, while his agent Diomansy Kamara publicly criticised Palace’s handling of the Senegal international.
Parish believes Sarr would have been allowed to leave had the circumstances been different.
“You could understand Ismaila would have liked to go and if it wasn’t five days before the end of the window and the money was right, then we would have tried to facilitate it,” he said.
The Palace chairman also criticised the public comments made by Sarr’s representatives.
“I would say to those representatives that 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.”
Sarr finished last season as Palace’s top scorer with 21 goals in all competitions and also scored four times for Senegal at the 2026 World Cup.
The 28-year-old has made only two substitute appearances for Palace this season after suffering an ankle injury, but has been included in Senegal’s squad for their upcoming fixtures.