da leao： Presenter of the HLTCO podcast Dan Cook believes Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi could be worth up to £65m in the market amid recent transfer links.
What’s the word?
da lvbet： While the January window is now closed, clubs who missed out on key targets may already be planning to rekindle interest in the summer.
And while Guehi never looked likely to leave Palace this winter, it has since been claimed that Tottenham Hotspur are potentially keen on signing the player. Indeed, as reported by football.london journalist Alasdair Gold, Spurs are ‘big admirers’ of the central defender.
Amid this latest development, while talking on the HLTCO podcast, Cook warned that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy might try to lowball the club – but he values the player anywhere from £50m to £65m.
He explained: “Given the way that Daniel Levy operates and the whole dissatisfaction behind the scenes at Spurs, I think it’s fair to assume that any offer that does come our way is likely to be quite a lowballing one.
“I don’t think it’s even outlandish, from a Crystal Palace fan or director point of view, to say that Marc Guehi should be going for 50, 60, maybe even £65m given his importance to us, given his age, given his England appearances and the potential of more England appearances in years to come, his comfort on the ball, his defensive solidarity.
“I think he has everything to be a top, top Premier League defender and we’re very, very lucky to have him. With that in mind, any sale of Marc Guehi to a club like Spurs will have to come at a premium.”
Fair price?
Guehi certainly is a top talent. After all, he is still only 22 years of age, yet he has already played over 50 times in the Premier League and has three international caps with England – as well as winning numerous youth trophies, including the U17 World Cup.
In the league this season, he has an average Sofascore rating of 6.93 across 19 starts for Palace. If you compare him with Ben Davies, who often plays as a left centre-back in a three for Spurs, the Welshman has a 6.86 average rating from 18 outings.
They both have five clean sheets, but Guehi makes more interceptions, more tackles and more clearances per game, while he also has a marginally more accurate passing percentage.
With that in mind, you can see how the Englishman could be seen as an upgrade. Of course, £65m is an awful lot of money to pay, but Manchester United did pay Leicester City £80m to land Harry Maguire in 2019, so it wouldn’t be the most a Premier League side has paid for an English defender by some way.