Top Liverpool target ‘dead set’ on Anfield transfer as Chelsea ‘pretty much walk away’

Chelsea have ‘pretty much walked’ away from a deal to sign Marc Guehi as the Crystal Palace defender is ‘dead set’ on moving to Liverpool, according to reports.

The Reds brought in eight new signings in the summer transfer window with Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni headlining those deals.

Liverpool were close to topping off the perfect transfer window by signing Guehi but Crystal Palace pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute.

The deal progressed to the point that Guehi was in the middle of his medical when he found out that the deal had collapsed with Liverpool likely to explore the deal again in January.

It is not 100 per cent clear whether Liverpool will go back in for Guehi in January or attempt to sign him a free transfer next summer – but leaving it until the end of the season opens them up to more competition.

Chelsea and Manchester City are amongst the clubs linked over the last few weeks but now journalist Simon Phillips insists the Blues have all but ruled themselves out of the race as Guehi is ‘dead set’ on joining Liverpool.

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Phillips wrote on his Substack: ‘There is an awareness within the club that the centre back position can be improved still, and they are working to try and find Maresca the right profile that he wants in.

‘Marc Guehi is a player that Chelsea would like to sign, and he is universally liked by everyone at the club.

‘However, the club have pretty much walked from that one because he is dead set on joining Liverpool and was never that keen to return to Chelsea anyway.’

Liverpool boss Arne Slot admitted that failing to get a deal for Guehi over the line was “a disappointment” and likely the player had the same feeling.

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Slot told the ‘One on One’ podcast: “Yeah, yeah. That is definitely the first part. The second part is, at Liverpool, we have so many good players, so we would have liked to sign him.

“That’s out in the open, so I’m not going to deny that. But I also know, and knew, that we have very good options in that position as well.

“But we are a club that, if we see an opportunity in the market and we can sign a very good player, we are always trying to do so. But if that doesn’t work out, I’m more than happy to work with the players we’ve got. For us, it was, of course, a disappointment, but for the player, I assume as well, because he was expecting to come to us.”