After his summer deadline-day move to Liverpool fell through at the last minute, Marc Guehi’s future is still a hot topic of conversation heading into the January transfer window.
Guehi was close to joining the Reds after the two clubs reached an agreement on a £35 million deal, and the midfielder had even finished his medical in London.
But in the end, Crystal Palace canceled the deal at the last second, denying the player his dream transfer to Anfield.
The club would lose Guehi for free next summer as he entered the last year of his contract, so the choice to keep him on board was crucial.
Marc Guehi’s blocked move to Liverpool explained
Steve Parish, the chairman and owner of Palace, provided an inside look at the reasoning behind the “difficult” choice in an interview with talkSPORT.
Parish clarified that he believed Palace needed to retain the player for another season in order to have a successful campaign, particularly because the team was participating in their first European tournament.
It’s a challenging choice. It’s that simple: these issues are never clear-cut.
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Based on the counsel I received and my own judgment, I ultimately concluded that keeping Marc would improve our season.
We don’t make educated guesses regarding these topics. This is a somewhat unique set of conditions in which to retain a player, if you consider the value of the Premier League spot and the fact that we are playing in the Conference League for the first time in our history.
“We probably would have said, ‘We should take the money,’ if we were fighting between 10th and 14th, if that was going to be the difference between keeping Marc and letting him go.”
Has Parish retained the option for Guehi to depart in January?
Before his contract expires in the summer, the club will be financially enticed to cash in on him.
By implying that the two players could supply the required depth if they recover from injuries, Parish seems to have kept the door open for a possible sale.
In the end, a lot will rely on how Palace’s season plays out. The management may choose to keep Guehi on until the end of the season and bear the financial consequences of his departure if they do well in both the Premier League and the Europa Conference League.
However, Liverpool is reportedly still interested in signing him and will be closely monitoring the situation.
Giovanni Leoni’s injury might compel the Reds to look for a new center-back in January and even try their hand at Palace once more.
However, the Reds will have more competition this time around because other teams are interested in signing him, notably Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich, who most recently entered the race.
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