Oliver Glasner has dismissed the possibility of Marc Guehi leaving Crystal Palace in January after a move to Liverpool collapsed in the summer
Oliver Glasner has revealed that he expects Marc Guehi to finish the season at Crystal Palace. The England international, who saw a £35m move to Liverpool collapse on transfer deadline day back in the summer, is out of contract at the end of the season and set to leave Selhurst Park on a free transfer.
The Palace captain had been undergoing a medical with the Reds after agreeing terms, only for Eagles chairman Steve Parish to pull the plug on the deal after the South London club failed to sign a replacement for the centre-back.
Liverpool remain interested in the defender, but they are not the only side keen on securing his services.
READ MORE: Liverpool sent worrying Alexander Isak warning after £125m transfer – ‘He’s not ready’READ MORE: Mohamed Salah and Liverpool may go their separate ways – but one man can still salvage this
Earlier this week, it was ECHO sister-site the Manchester Evening News reported that Man City had added Guehi to their own transfer shortlist ahead of a possible summer move when his contract expires.
It remains to be seen if the Reds will make a renewed bid for Guehi when the transfer window re-opens in January, though Liverpool are currently short on options at centre-back.
Giovanni Leoni has been ruled out for the season after undergoing surgery on an ACL injury, while Joe Gomez limped off with a hamstring issue in the Reds’ win over Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend. Such absences leave Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate as Arne Slot’s only available senior options.
However, having kept hold of Guehi in the summer, Palace boss Glasner has dismissed the possibility of his captain leaving mid-season.
“I think Marc will stay until the end of the season,” he told reporters on Wednesday when speaking ahead of his side’s Conference League encounter against Finnish side Kuopion Palloseura.
With Liverpool only making their summer move for Guehi following the Community Shield clash with Palace in August, Parish recently suggested that the Reds might have been successful in their pursuit of the defender if they had opened negotiations earlier.
“You can’t spend money you don’t have,” he told the Athletic. “You have to have some guardrails as a club, or you’ll build up big problems down the track.
“Everyone saw where prices went in the summer; it’s a difficult landscape. There wasn’t the right thing available at the right time when the finances were in place. There’s no point in doing something for the sake of it.
“How are you going to get someone to come and tell them they are No 1 in Ebs’ (Eze) position if you still have him.
“The one where we didn’t, with Marc (Guehi), we kept him. You can’t always make happen what you want to.
“We are where we are in the pecking order; you could ask why other clubs make bids for our players two weeks before the end of the window. I don’t know why they did that.”
While Glasner might be confident that Guehi will see out the season with Palace, his Eagles team-mate Adam Wharton recently admitted that they had expected their captain to already move on.
The midfielder has also been linked with his own move away from Selhurst Park in recent months, with Liverpool one of the sides he continues to be linked with.
But the 21-year-old’s agent, James Featherstone, insists the player’s camp are in no rush for Wharton to leave Palace as he hinted at their plans for the highly-rated midfielder’s future.
“Adam hadn’t made his debut for Blackburn. There were question marks about his physicality, his physical output, input or both,” he told talkSPORT when recalling Wharton’s initial move to Palace. “We sat down, like you would with a lot of young players who have got the talent or potential, and spoke about shooting for the stars… let’s play for England.
“Personally, to play for England, you have to play Champions League and you have got to play in one of the top teams in the top leagues. He was at Blackburn Rovers at the time, he hadn’t made a first-team start for Blackburn Rovers.
“The easiest path would have been to get into Blackburn’s team and then get promoted to the Premier League because I think that pathway at a young age, you can get lost.
“At the time, Blackburn were around the play-offs for a couple of seasons and next season you thought they’re going to go that bit further. They unfortunately ended up being at the other end of the league and that ultimately was the move to Crystal Palace.
“There were a lot of options (when he joined Palace in January 2024). I absolutely knew Palace was the right environment.
“Not just the club but the dressing room, we had players in the dressing room who understood the culture and environment. I felt it would be the perfect step for him in terms of playing Premier League football.
“It is two years next month (since he signed). In terms of what has happened, I’ve got to be honest, it wasn’t really part of the plan winning the FA Cup, playing for England and so on. Those are the bits on top you take and run with.
“We have got a plan. He is 21, I have to check myself to remember that every now and then. We have got a plan; it doesn’t have to be achieved yesterday, today, (or) this moment.
“He has got his in-game, in-season targets (and) goals. He has got to do his bit and the rest will look after itself in a very calm, structured way to maximise his ability.”
