Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace looks on during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Crystal Palace FC at St Mary's Stadium on April 02, 2025 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)placeholder image
Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace looks on during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Crystal Palace FC at St Mary's Stadium on April 02, 2025 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Liverpool are keen to sign Marc Guehi in the summer transfer window but will have to come to an agreement with Crystal Palace.
Liverpool’s pursuit of Marc Guehi could set to go on for a little longer.
Guehi has a year remaining on his current Palace contract. He has made eye-catching progress since moving to the Eagles from Chelsea for £18 million in 2021. Guehi captained Palace to FA Cup glory following a 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley in May, while he is a regular for England.
Guehi replacement plans
Oliver Glasner’s side will not want to lose Guehi for free in 12 months’ time. But given that Palace will be competing in Europe in the 2025-26 season, they will also not want to be left short in central defence.
There have been suggestions that Palace are closing in on a deal to sign Sporting CP’s Ousmane Diomande. The Portuguese champions do not want to lose Diomande for below their asking price and are suggested to want around £52 million.
According to Portuguese outlet Record, Palace have ‘given up’ on trying to sign Diomande and ‘an offer did not even emerge’. The Eagles were said to be willing to pay around £25 million. Diomande is considered a key player by Sporting and is ‘protected by an €80 million clause’.
Palace stance
As a result, Liverpool might have to wait for Palace to find a replacement - while a fee needs to be negotiated for Guehi. Steve Parish, who is chairman of the Selhurst Park club, is a tough negotiator. Last summer, the Eagles rebuffed several bids from Newcastle United and reportedly turned down an offer of £70 million from Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window.
But speaking on the It’s Called Soccer podcast before the FA Cup final, Parish did admit that Palace are a ‘trading club’ with the likes of Michael Olise, Wilfried Zaha, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Yannick Bolasie being sold in recent years.
Parish said: “The first thing is we need to stay in the division so that's the first north star and that's obviously not easy as we can see from even Man United and Tottenham this year. They're not really close to relegation, but that's arguably because we have all taken a lot of points this year off the bottom three clubs. Anything that increases the risk of that dramatically, it's very difficult to find a way to do it.
“After that, then, of course, we will be a trading club. We want to survive and thrive in this division for two reasons: firstly because financially you have to cover the cost of running the club and, secondly, because the kind of players we want to attract, we need to show them a pathway.
“We're a destination for those great pros that have still got a massive competitive instinct, still want to do well, still want to give everything when they cross the white line but they realise they're probably not quite going to get to the level above us. Then there are players that are on a journey and on their way to the Bayern Munichs and other clubs. We realised over a period of time that we have to be really open to it.
“The thing you have to do with clubs like ours is manage that process as well as you can, so not to lose too many. I remember Sir Alex [Ferguson] used to try and bring in two players every summer. He thought any more than that was very difficult to integrate in the squad. That would be the kind of number of your real premium talent that you would be really able to deal with in any one summer so trying to time things so you can manage that is what we're trying to do.”
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