Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi and manager Oliver Glasner salute the fans after beating West Ham in the Premier League | Bryn Lennon/Getty Imagesplaceholder image
Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi and manager Oliver Glasner salute the fans after beating West Ham in the Premier League | Bryn Lennon/Getty Images | Getty Images
Chelsea have dealt swiftly with the departure of Enzo Maresca, will they be as decisive over their pursuit of Marc Guehi?
Chelsea have a core of players who can challenge for the Premier League title with consistency always being a bigger problem than quality.
The Blues didn’t take long to replace the departed Enzo Maresca with former Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior who has been labelled as a ‘yes man’ by Clinton Morrison. Despite the upheaval in the dugout, there will be no change to the transfer plans although the incoming boss has told the BlueCo hierarchy that he wants Marc Guehi to lead his Stamford Bridge revolution.
Marc Guehi transfer race hots up
January is never a great time to do business and the way that Crystal Palace pulled the plug on Guehi’s £35m move to Liverpool at the last minute in the summer should serve as a warning to those who court the England international.
With Oliver Glasner being hotly tipped to replace Ruben Amorim at Man United, he might not be as demanding with the Palace board when it comes to who stays and who goes at Selhurst Park.
The Eagles are said to want the same, or more, that was agreed with Liverpool to let Guehi go in January and with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Man City and the Premier League champions all reported to be interested, who could blame them? Not every club could justify this sort of outlay though but with City set to be without Ruben Diaz and Josko Gvardiol over the next couple of months, at least, and with John Stones out of contract at the end of the season, Pep Guardiola might be wanting a potential summer move brought forward.
Oliver Glasner admits Guehi could leave in January
Glasner made an ultimatum to the Palace board in the summer after Guehi agreed terms and passed a medical with Liverpool, however, speaking on the eve of the transfer window opening, his stance appeared to soften.
“Tomorrow starts the next crazy month in football,” he said. “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.”
Preparing for his side’s clash with Aston Villa, Glasner opened up even more specifically about Guehi after links to Man City intensified, via talkSPORT.
“If a player feels too good for a club, it is better to sell him, and if a player is not good enough for a club, you also have to sell him,” Glasner said. “To get the best out of your squad, it must be a match.”
Asked whether Guehi could end up at City, Glasner said: “It could be. I’m not so naive as not to know that if a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”
Guehi is the sort of signing that Chelsea should just ignore the contract situation because the reality is, even at £35m, he would cost half of what a player his calibre should.
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