Chelsea 'looking into' Liverpool target who could be available for £50m this summer

Chelsea are now circling back to a long-term defensive target, according to one report, as they look to land a centre-back this summer. The Blues need a centre-back to add depth given the injury issues suffered by Wesley Fofana during his time at the club.

Trevoh Chalobah could be set to stick around, but there is uncertainty over what the future holds for players like Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo. Either way, Chelsea seem to want another starting-calibre centre-back to compete with Levi Colwill, Fofana and Chalobah, but such a signing is never cheap.

One player Chelsea continue to be linked with is Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi, who could leave Selhurst Park this summer. Guehi has just one year remaining on his current contract, so Palace may be inclined to sell this summer to avoid the risk of losing the England international for nothing next summer.

As far as Chelsea are concerned, Guehi has already proven he can perform against the best in the Premier League and on the international stage, and perhaps more importantly, he knows Chelsea inside out having come up through the ranks at Stamford Bridge originally.

According to Simon Phillips, Chelsea have now circled back to Guehi and are sounding out a possible deal. He said on his Substack: “SPTC sources understand that Chelsea have again made new contact with the agents of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, a player who has been on Chelsea’s defender shortlist for some time now.

“Guehi has a lot of interest and not just from Chelsea, and he is expected to depart his club this summer. Chelsea are looking into the player side of the deal right now and seeing if anything is possible there as they look to bring in a new centre back in the latter end of the window. Guehi is believed to be open to making a move back to Chelsea this summer but is also aware of other interest from big clubs in the Premier League.”

Liverpool and others have also been heavily linked with Guehi this summer, while Newcastle United and Tottenham have had bids rejected in recent windows.

Crystal Palace’s Guehi stance

A price of around £50million has been mentioned for Guehi this summer, with Palace likely having to take less than what they have previously demanded due to the contract situation. Palace chief Steve Parish has said of his approach to recruitment and departures when speaking this summer: “The group are amazing and they love being there, but people want to progress their careers.

“Part of coming to Crystal Palace, sometimes, is the promise we make. We are part of your journey. You look at Michael [Olise] who has gone to Bayern, you look at all these players that have gone on. It’s about managing change [at] football clubs. You can’t cling on to everybody. Some of it you can plan, and some of it, like you say, you get a phone call and you need to react to it. Last summer, we got a phone call out of the blue from Fulham on Joachim Andersen, we decide to sell him and then we went and got Maxence Lacroix.”

Parish added on this summer’s plans: “There will probably be some change this summer and we will be the first people to wish that people that go well, and just make sure we try bring in new young talent that can do the same.”

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