Chelsea face £20m valuation 'gap' problem over prime transfer target

Chelsea are said to be interested in re-signing Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi as they look to address their lack of depth at centre-back. The Blues don’t lack depth by the literal definition of the phrase, even with Wesley Fofana potentially out for the rest of the season, or at least most of it.

Enzo Maresca does not appear to be convinced by Axel Disasi, who has been mooted to move on, while Tosin Adarabioyo seems to be viewed as a supplementary option rather than a starter.

Chelsea still have Fofana to come back, but the Frenchman’s injury history suggests another starting centre-back may be required if the Blues are to compete consistently at the very top level. Former centre-back Guehi has been tipped as a possible replacement having become one of England’s top defenders over the last year or so.

Palace have shown they will stand firm

Guehi attracted serious interest last summer when Newcastle United chased him until the very end of the window. But Crystal Palace stood firm, demanding £75million until the very end of the window. Palace chief Steve Parish said after the window: “I don’t think the window worked out exactly the same format that we thought it would.

“Maybe we thought at the beginning it’d be more likely that Marc Guehi went and we kept Joachim Andersen. We accepted that bid [for Andersen] which then made it very difficult really to sell both of our starting centre-backs in one window. That’s not to say it wasn’t still an outside possibility that we got to the right number but then Chadi Riad got injured. That doesn’t look quite as bad as it seems but it still left us very light and really made it impossible for us to consider at that point.”

He added: “We’re proud of the fact that Michael Olise’s gone to Bayern Munich. We want to be selling to the top clubs, or to clubs like Newcastle who’ve got great aspirations and have recently been in the Champions League. So we have to manage all of those things. We won’t get really great young talent to come to us if they think they’re going to be stuck.”

Chelsea valuation problem

Chelsea re now reportedly showing interest in Guehi, and with only 18 months remaining on the defender’s contract, Palace are said to be demanding a slightly reduced £70million. Palace are much less likely to sell in January than the summer, but they risk having to accept less money come the summer.

According to Ben Jacobs, Chelsea have a valuation of Guehi of £50million or less based on his current contract situation, and they are very unlikely to pay anywhere near £70million to take the defender back to Stamford Bridge, where he came through the club’s academy. That is a big gap between the two valuations.