Transfer fee Crystal Palace ‘would take’ for Guehi revealed as ‘sweet spot’ for Man City emerges

Jason Soutar
Marc Guehi with the Man City and Bayern badges
Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi is attracting interest from Man City and Bayern

£25million for Marc Guehi would hit the ‘sweet spot’ for Crystal Palace and Manchester City, according to ex-Cityzens financial adviser Stefan Borson.

Guehi is out of contract in the summer and Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid are all interested in signing him on a free transfer, while Man City are considering a bid in January.

Marc Guehi transfer saga: What to know

  • Man City the only club interested in a January transfer
  • Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid all want Guehi for free
  • Palace boss Glasner has already confirmed Guehi will leave this summer

Pep Guardiola’s side are currently weighing up whether it is worth paying around £35m for a player available for nothing in six months.

The eight-time Premier League champions could add a centre-back this month after injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol.

City have already recalled Max Alleyne from his season-long loan at Watford, and the 19-year-old was thrown straight into the starting XI upon his return, playing against Brighton in the Premier League and Exeter City in the FA Cup, scoring in an emphatic 10-1 victory.

Dias is expected to miss around six weeks, while it remains unclear whether Gvardiol will play again this season after suffering a tibial fracture.

Guehi would be an outstanding addition, but the Palace defender appears intent on leaving at the end of the campaign.

The Eagles might struggle to turn down £35m for a player set to leave for nothing in six months, no matter how important Guehi is, but that figure could be deemed too high by interested clubs given his contract situation.

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‘£20-25m feels like the sweet spot for Guehi’

With that in mind, Borson believes Palace would accept a £25m offer for their captain.

Borson told Football Insider: “I don’t think you get to the end of January when Palace have got no more games before the window closes, if somebody says to Palace, it’s £25m or nothing, I can’t see how Palace can turn down £25m at that stage.

“You’re basically then saying, ‘You can either have the player for maybe 15 league games and some Conference League games, or you can have £25m. What are you going to choose?’. I think you’re going to take £25m.

“Now, maybe when it gets to £20m, you’re like, ‘Well, actually this is what the club’s all about and we’d like to win the Conference League’. Definitely at £15m, you go, ‘We’ll keep him’. But I think kind of £20-25m, by the time you get there, I think they’re not going to turn it down.”

Borson adds that City are not prepared to pay a fee in the region of £40m, with £20-25m hitting the “sweet spot”.

“I don’t see that City or anybody else is going to pay more than let’s say £40m because they’re going to have a big signing-on fee anyway,” he added.

“That’s pretty much akin to the deal that would happen in the summer for free. So, they’re looking at it going, do we need this player so much for the last 15 games plus Champions League games?

“Do we need him so much that we’re prepared to pay £40m, effectively as a six-month fee, comparing what we could pay now versus what we pay in the summer? I just don’t think people are going to do it, so I think you get down to a kind of £25-30m feels like the sweet spot.”

Bayern ‘hold advantage’ over City in Guehi race

Guehi has been one of the Premier League’s standout centre-backs over the last two-and-a-half years, so it is no surprise to see so much interest from Europe’s elite.

A move abroad has not been ruled out, although Liverpool are widely believed to be leading the race after coming agonisingly close to signing the 25-year-old last summer.

However, a report from Foot Mercato claims Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich ‘currently hold an advantage’ over their English rivals, ‘due to the player’s stated preference for a move to Germany’.

Unlike City, Bayern’s sole focus is on signing Guehi on a free transfer, and it increasingly looks like this race will be decided in the summer rather than January.

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Manchester City Marc Guehi

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