The two reasons Liverpool will not hijack Man City move for Marc Guehi as £29m agreement reachedplaceholder image
The two reasons Liverpool will not hijack Man City move for Marc Guehi as £29m agreement reached | Getty Images
Liverpool will watch on as Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi heads to Premier League rivals Manchester City
Liverpool will not be making any late moves for Marc Guehi as the Crystal Palace defender prepares to join Manchester City on a long-term deal.
The Reds have been persistently linked with the England international for the duration of the 2025-26 season after seeing a £35m transfer collapse on deadline day in the summer window. Liverpool had agreed the deal with Palace but the London club backed out at the 11th hour.
Liverpool’s intention was to return for Guehi on a free transfer in the summer. The defender had been clear with Palace that he did not intend to pen a new contract at Selhurst Park.
His decision put several of Europe’s top clubs on alert. Manchester City entered the race for his signature this month as they looked for defensive reinforcements after suffering a number of injuries.
A medical is due to take place within the coming days - and leaves room for Liverpool to try and hijack the deal. However, that is very unlikely to happen.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Liverpool “do not regard signing Guehi this month as a market opportunity”. They felt £35m in the summer was a market opportunity and believed the same about a free transfer this summer.
However, their feeling that signing him for £29m in January does not represent good value means that it is unlikely they will change their stance and make a late attempt to bring him to Merseyside.
Another reason they will not attempt a late move is because of the contract Guehi has agreed at the Etihad Stadium. He is reportedly set to earn £300,000 a week at Man City.
Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are the highest-paid players at Anfield and the only ones who earn more than what Guehi will be earning at City. Liverpool would be unwilling to smash their wage structure to sign Guehi now he has agreed a lucrative deal with City.
Speaking about signing centre-backs this month, manager Arne Slot said back in December: “First of all for himself but the injury of Giovanni Leoni is, of course, it has quite a lot of impact," Slot said.
"If you have four centre backs for the season, two right and two left backs with Wata (Wataru Endo) and Ryan (Gravenberch) who can help you out, but then you have an ACL injury, that is not very helpful. It is tough.
"And unfortunately Joe is now out of the squad again tomorrow. In a season, these moments for most teams happen. Some teams have so many (options) but most other teams do not.
"This is our way of working at Liverpool. The outside world wants to believe we have unlimited money but that is not true.
"You insiders know – and you are the only ones because the outside world only talks about our spending – what we have brought in (money) to spend. "That is the way we work over here.
“You then have to accept that in certain games during a season you are short of a right full back.
"But we are still able to win. I fully believe in that way of working, by the way."
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