Marc Guehi’s potential transfer to Liverpool has been dragging on for a fair few weeks now.
The centre-back has entered the final 12 months of his contract with Crystal Palace, and unless a deal is struck for the defender this summer, the Eagles will lose him for free at the end of the season.
On Saturday, it was reported that Liverpool had made a £35million bid for the defender, which was rejected with a counter-offer of £35million with £5million in add-ons and a 10 per cent sell-on clause.
However, since Liverpool only see Guehi as an interesting market opportunity due to how much Palace want for him with just a year left on his deal, the Reds are only going to pay what they believe he’s worth.
Which, when they could sign him for nothing next season, isn’t going to be a massive amount of money.
Chelsea are now interested in signing Marc Guehi
Although the Reds’ fans believe they’ve already signed the Englishman, as his contract terms have already been agreed upon, there’s still a long way to go until anything concrete is shared.
And, as per a report from Caught Offside, it seems like Chelsea are now interested in signing their former academy player.
Liverpool are still ‘leading the race’, but due to how long negotiations between Palace and Liverpool are being dragged out for, the Blues have ‘re-entered the picture.’
Caught Offside add that Enzo Maresca is looking to ‘take advantage’ of the delay in negotiations and see Guehi as a perfect replacement should someone such as Axel Disasi end up exiting.
Indeed, a deal would be ‘complicated’ to agree upon, but a return to Stamford Bridge isn’t ruled out.
Liverpool need to step things up if they want to sign Marc Guehi
One thing that has been made abundantly clear from Liverpool’s first two Premier League games is that defensive reinforcement is needed.
Not only did Arne Slot have to play Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back against Newcastle due to injuries, but Ibrahima Konate was in poor form once again.
Both of these situations could have potentially been avoided if Guehi had been brought in at the start of the summer when the links first started to emerge.
The addition of the Englishman would also provide some healthy competition for Konate’s place in Liverpool’s first-team squad, which would likely make him perform better.
Indeed, Konate does have question marks hanging over his head about his future due to the centre-back also only having 12 months left on his current deal, but that shouldn’t make him perform as poorly as he has.
If Liverpool are serious about signing Guehi this summer, they need to step things up as soon as possible; otherwise, they could end up missing out on a player who Alan Shearer once dubbed “superb.”
This would obviously be far from ideal, and unless things get into motion soon, it could become a reality.
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