Haaland will miss the Palace clashplaceholder image
Haaland will miss the Palace clash | AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool could be on the lookout for a new centre-half and one club has been told to sell a potential target.
Liverpool are not at the stage of fine tuning during this transfer window with so much of the good and important work being done early by Richard Hughes and his team.
A record transfer for Florian Wirtz has set the benchmark for the summer and the signings of Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez mean that attention can not be paid elsewhere.
There is time, should the opportunity and finances allow, for another record-breaking transfer for Alexander Isak, if the stars align and Liverpool manage to get more players out the door. That one though, looks like it could be more of a long term project and one for next year.
Crystal Palace told to sell Liverpool target Marc Guehi
What will be addressed in the coming weeks is the centre-half issue. Jarell Quansah’s move to Bayer Leverkusen leaves Liverpool light, even if they are still big fans of Joe Gomez. Hanging their hopes on a player who missed most of last season isn’t the sort of forward planning that has been seen of late even if Ibrahima Konate extends his contract.
The obvious signing is Marc Guehi who has been linked consistently over the last 12-months and who Liverpool can take advantage of financially given Crystal Palace’s situation. According to former Chelsea player and pundit Scott Minto, the Eagles have a decision to make:
“Got to cash in. It is seen now as a very good decision for Palace to be able to keep him with the season that they had. You cannot afford to let him go for nothing,” Minto said on Talksport.
“Crystal Palace Football Club cannot afford to do something like that in the way that, say, Trent's gone from Liverpool and Liverpool can still bounce back financially. So as much as I think he's a top class player, to gamble from a player's point of view, he could get injured, a serious injury, I don't think there would be a loss of form problem and he's arguably England's best sent to half. But it's still a gamble, you never know what can happen, a year's a long time.”
Minto is right. Palace aren’t Liverpool. They can’t sell fringe or academy players for £30m to 40m to help fill financial gaps. Eberechi Eze is their star player and his transfer clause is £60m.
Liverpool can play the waiting game with Guehi
Palace did turn an offer of over £70m down for Guehi in January from Spurs, however, they will feel justified given the incredible FA Cup win at the end of the season. That for their fans will have been priceless and worth every penny.
A fee in the region of £40m would allow Palace to replace Guehi and strengthen elsewhere, it has been suggested that the England international is happy to see out his contract, however, it may be that he is being advised to do this to speed up his potential exit this summer.
Liverpool can afford to sit and wait and it may be that if the London-based club sign a new centre-half in the coming weeks, that negotiations to sign Guehi become a lot easier.
The transfer widow after all is a game of chess, not checkers.
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