Chelsea sold Marc Guehi to Crystal Palace in the summer of 2021, and one imagines they already regret it.
Since then they’ve spent vast sums on central defenders, some of whom have played and been bad (Kalidou Koulibaly) and some have not even played (Wesley Fofana).
If we had Guehi in our squad this season, how many appearances would he have? Axel Disasi has played almost every game, and most people would say Guehi is a better player.
If Chelsea want to buy him back, they won’t find that easy either. Fabrizio Romano has today written in his exclusive column for Caught Offside that Palace will only consider “important” proposals for the defender, not “normal” ones.
What that means is… really, really big offers.
The defender is valued at €38m by Transfermarkt, but is he were to move this summer, one would expect a much bigger sum to be needed. Looking around at how much players with his pedigree are going for at the moment, we’d be surprised if anything under €50m is even considered.
There have been whispers in the past that the Blues have a clause in the deal with took Guehi to Palace which would allow them to match other teams’ offers. But given our financial situation at the moment, it’s hard to see us being able or willing to match Liverpool or Manchester United should they really go all out to make him their player.
This feels like the right time for Palace to sell to maximise their value – it will be very interesting to see what happens now.
I seriously don’t understand why Chelsea won’t pay more attention to such details as buy back clauses which could go a long way and be helpful in cases like this. And now they are about to send Maatsen away to become a star elsewhere come the summer window. My fingers crossed and my eyes peeled concerning this particular deal. I’d say Maatsen should go on another loan, but this is the reality as we have it in PSR, a mess and quite a shame!