Manchester City are reportedly considering making a January move for Liverpool transfer target Marc Guehi
Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace looks on as the team warms up prior to the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Crystal Palace at St James' Park
Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace looks on as the team warms up prior to the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Crystal Palace at St James' Park
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When Liverpool saw their £35m deadline day move for Marc Guehi blocked at the 11th hour by Crystal Palace last summer, the expectation was that the England international would see out the season at Selhurst Park. Sure enough, Oliver Glasner revealed only last month that he expected his captain to complete the campaign with the Eagles.
But things can change quickly and that resolve could be about to be tested now that the January transfer window is open.
Guehi remains out of contract at the end of the seaso, and has already informed Palace that he will not be signing a new contract.
He has a host of suitors, including Liverpool, queuing up to sign him on a Bosman transfer when his current deal expires.
Manchester City are one such side, with the ECHO’s sister-site, the Manchester Evening News, reporting last month that Guehi had been added to their shortlist of summer transfer targets.
But the latest reports suggest that Pep Guardiola’s men could now accelerate plans to sign the defender and make a move this month after losing both Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias to injury in Sunday’s draw with Chelsea.
BBC Sportreported on Monday that a mid-season switch for Guehi was not being ruled out at the Etihad, with club bosses waiting to discover the full extent of the Gvardiol and Dias injuries before making a final decision.
It has since been confirmed that the former has broken his shinbone and will undergo surgery later this week.
City are already short at centre-back with John Stones sidelined, and also out of contract at the end of the season. Meanwhile, Nathan Ake has found himself on the fringes while Abdukodir Khusanov has only just returned from injury himself.
Only time will tell if City are to make a move for Guehi this month, and if they do, whether such a swoop could also call Liverpool into action.
Glasner had previously been adamant that he did not want to lose his captain in January, and offered a blunt response affirming as much following Palace’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur when asked what the club’s intentions were for Guehi in January.
However, his tone softened slightly ahead of Palace’s New Year’s Day clash with Fulham as he conceded anything could happen once the transfer window re-opened.
“Tomorrow starts the next crazy month in football,” he said last week. “And I don’t know, I’ve experienced so many different situations.
“The next 31 days will be everything is possible, like always, and everything I say today might be wrong in two days.
“And I think most of what I say today will be definitely wrong by the end of the transfer window, because I don’t know, and that’s why I don’t really care about it, especially I don’t want to talk about it in public.
“Everything I say today might be wrong. That’s why the best thing is say nothing.
“You will ask me all these questions again and again and again. I need to find one answer. I will always tell you the same, as long as I don’t know anything else.
“Because, believe me, if I knew something. I would tell you. So I don’t know what’s going on.
“I don’t know what will happen with Marc. I don’t know what will happen with new players, and I don’t know what will happen with JP [Jean-Philippe Mateta], I don’t know anything.”
With Palace set to host Aston Villa on Wednesday, coincidentally in the reverse fixture of what had previously looked set to be Guehi’s last appearance for the club back in the summer, Glasner will likely face further questioning about his skipper’s future.
And with the transfer window remaining open until February 2, such transfer speculation is going to show no signs of slowing down in the weeks ahead as the likes of Liverpool watch on.