Marc Guehi is the missed transfer that could haunt Liverpool

The early theme of Liverpool’s season may be the slow start of their new arrivals, but over time, the failure to add one more player to the squad may prove to be the most costly.

Missing out on Marc Guehi, the centre-half who was on the verge of a deadline day move before Crystal Palace pulled the plug, was a bitter moment in a summer that otherwise offered so much hope.

Could Liverpool have done more to secure Guehi? The feeling at Anfield at the time was that the 25-year-old England international represented more a good market opportunity than a top priority, particularly given they had signed Giovanni Leoni, the young Italian centre-half, from Parma.

It meant conversations with Palace over a move did not begin in earnest until after the Community Shield on August 10. With no rival in the race to sign him and Liverpool unwilling to pay what they considered to be over the odds for a player out of contract in a year, the feeling at Anfield was that they had played a cute strategic game. Delaying a move until the end of the window gave them the chance to secure him at the best possible price (£35million plus a 10 per cent sell-on clause).

But doing so meant Palace had no time to secure a quality replacement, which their manager Oliver Glasner had said was a key condition of any sale. So while Guehi was permitted to undergo a medical with Liverpool, and a deal sheet had been submitted to the Premier League, ultimately the move collapsed because Palace chairman Steve Parish simply ran out of time in his search for a successor.

Liverpool’s gamble backfired. If they had met Palace’s £45m valuation at the start of the transfer window, Guehi would have moved to Anfield immediately, given his enthusiasm to join.

In the context of a record £449m transfer spend in a single window, it seems odd to quibble over a ‘mere’ £10m. But FSG make a point of paying what they consider market value for players. It was not an option to be forced into paying over what they believed was a fair price for a player who had no intention of staying longer than one more season at Selhurst Park.

Perhaps there might have been more room to manoeuvre had FSG’s CEO of football, Michael Edwards, and Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes not been spinning so many other plates during a frantic summer. Not only did Liverpool announce two record-breaking deals in Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz alongside five other signings, they also moved on 10 players who featured in the first-team squad last year, including seven on permanent deals. Extracting the most amount of money from those transfers was just as important as any incoming business given FSG’s self-sustaining business model.

Yet, with the benefit of hindsight, it feels like a strategic error not to have signed Guehi. Not only are Liverpool losing games and conceding goals at an alarming rate, they’re also short on cover in defence with Leoni now ruled out for the season with a knee injury and Virgil van Dijk in need of a breather.

The ongoing standoff with Ibrahima Konate and his contract that expires at the end of the season is another issue to contend with. If Liverpool aren’t able to extend the Frenchman’s deal, they will lose one of the most valuable centre-halves in the world for nothing next summer.

Had they signed Guehi, the pressure to source a ready-to-go centre-half would not be as strong yet now they face increased competition for the defender, who has informed Palace he will not be extending his stay in south London beyond this season and will be free to talk to foreign clubs in January.

Bayern Munich are interested in Guehi, having previously signed Michael Olise from Palace in 2024. They had considered a move in the summer but that was contingent upon selling Kim Min-jae, which did not happen. The prospect of securing Guehi without a transfer fee is likely to make him even more appealing but would still need to be balanced financially, although there are doubts over whether Dayot Upamecano, who is also out of contract at the end of the season, will sign a new deal.

Liverpool tend to try and block out the outside noise when it comes to transfers, and would doubtless point to the fact that missing out on targets in the past has not exactly proved catastrophic. They wanted to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad in 2024, but his decision to stay in Spain an extra year allowed Ryan Gravenberch to thrive as a No 6.

Similarly, Mason Mount’s decision to join Manchester United in 2023 also forced Liverpool to focus more on Dominik Szoboszlai; over time, that, too, has worked in their favour. The decision to ditch the pursuit of Jude Bellingham in the same summer of 2023 and instead rebuild the entire midfield with four players, two already mentioned above, and both Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo, also paved the way for last season’s title success.

Even so, seeing Guehi line up for Palace at Anfield in tonight’s Carabao Cup fourth round — and the fact that the London club’s social media team chose a picture of him to promote the game on X on Monday suggests he will play — may prompt some thoughts of what might have been.

He has already played for Palace in two victories over Slot’s side this season — the Community Shield at Wembley and the Premier League encounter at Selhurst Park last month, which precipitated Liverpool’s slide in results.

It feels like Guehi is the one that got away. If it’s only for a season, then the impact may be limited; if he ends up going elsewhere, Liverpool may live to regret the way they handled their summer pursuit.

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