Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi excelled with Euro 2024 runners-up England, instrumental in their surprise final run after recovering from knee surgery. Newcastle made four unsuccessful bids, the last worth up to £65m including add-ons and all were rebuffed, with Palace now acquiring a pair of wantaway centre-backs after Joachim Andersen returned to Fulham for £30m this month.
Glasner happy to have a committed captain
CRYSTAL Palace left it late but completed a pair of deals to sign central defenders in Chelsea academy graduate Trevoh Chalobah (season-long loan) and Wolfsburg’s Maxence Lacroix (£17.5m after add-ons) on transfer deadline day, while keeping hold of captain and influential defender Marc Guehi after speculation aplenty had him headed to a domestic rival in a lucrative deal.
“I can confirm [Guehi will stay], but was never in doubt. Congratulations to our owners because they didn’t give in, Marc was always open with me, all the rumours didn’t influence his performances. He always told me he’s not pushing to leave and that’s the most important thing for me.”
Guehi, himself a Chelsea academy graduate, made his 100th Premier League appearance during their 2-0 defeat by West Ham last weekend and following three seasons in England’s top-flight, was linked with a move to Liverpool under new head coach Arne Slot’s management over the summer too. Nothing materialised.
Tosin Adarabioyo, the other English-based central defender linked with a move to Merseyside, opted for Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea on a free transfer from Fulham.
Guehi replaced Joel Ward in being named club captain this term, at a time when transfer links were at their peak with Newcastle still hopeful of agreeing a reasonable transfer fee. That optimism would’ve reduced significantly after news of Andersen returning to west London, three years after a successful loan spell there.
Mallorca-born Morocco international Chadi Riad joined in a £12.5m move from La Liga side Real Betis in July but the 21-year-old defender lasted just ten minutes in their 4-0 EFL Cup home win over Norwich this past week before succumbing to a knee ligament injury that will keep him sidelined for several weeks.
Couple that with Guehi losing his centre-back partner in Andersen, as well as chairman Scott Parish’s superstar money claim when quizzed about their asking price for the 24-year-old, and it makes sense that their captain has stayed put.
Trevoh Chalobah had been linked with Serie A giants Inter last summer before an untimely training injury saw any potential move scuppered at the time, and now a year later, he’ll hope to gain some long-awaited Premier League minutes again after being reduced to a spectator role on the substitutes’ bench in west London.
As I wrote at the time, Chalobah has built up first-team experience through multiple loan spells (Ipswich, Huddersfield, Lorient) but the former England youth international – 53 appearances from under-16 to under-21 level – would command a considerable transfer fee, given he’s got four years left on his existing Chelsea deal.
He made 13 top-flight appearances and ten were starts across three positions – centre-back, right-back and defensive midfield – in the second-half of last season, the Blues’ prospects of a productive season already painfully futile by that stage.
Palace will hope he, much like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Guehi and new Atletico midfielder Conor Gallagher, settles quickly and slots seamlessly into the fold among familar faces in south London as they embrace another arrival from Cobham.
Speaking of youth internationals, Lacroix – capped 12 times between U16 and U20 level for France – shares an agent with Guehi and they’re three months apart in age.
Reuniting under former head coach Glasner, who oversaw his development in the 2020-21 campaign, he’ll hope to make a big impact in another new country.
Picture source: Getty Images
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