Why Manchester City need to beat rivals and sign one of the bargains of the season

Manchester City need to pull out all the stops and convince England international Marc Guehi to join them over rivals Liverpool.

The Crystal Palace defender was part of one of the biggest transfer sagas of the summer transfer window, as Guehi looked like he was heading to Merseyside and even completed a medical at Anfield.

However, Palace officials ended up blocking the move late on in deadline day as the bid from their Liverpool counterparts came too late and did not give the Eagles enough time to sign a replacement.

This is expected to be great news for clubs around Europe, including those at Manchester City, who have been linked to Marc Guehi this week. With the defender available on a free from June – and also able to talk to clubs from January – multiple teams will be battling to sign him. 

Guehi being available on a free agreement could be one of the biggest bargains of this decade in the Premier League, and Manchester City need to make sure that they push ahead of Liverpool and are first in the queue for the signing.

City signed some top talent over the course of the summer transfer window, including the likes of Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rayan Cherki, but they failed to sign any central defenders and instead focussed on outgoings in the position.

This looks to have already affected them in the Premier League this campaign as they have lost two of their first four matches, conceding four goals in their two losses, whilst also battling injuries around John Stones.

The club do have some top defenders like Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Stones, but the latter picked up another injury and was unavailable against Manchester United, whilst Ait-Nouri was also not in the squad due to an injury.

John Stones has been very injury-prone over the course of the last few seasons, particularly after the historic Treble-winning campaign of 2022/23, and this has been a huge issue for Manchester City.

Abdukodir Khusanov was signed in January and looked like a future replacement for Stones, but the 21 year-old has only started in eight Premier League matches and does not look to be ready to play consistently for Pep Guardiola’s side.

With this context taken into account, a defender like Marc Guehi should be the next priority signing and convincing him to join them over Liverpool, either in January for a bargain price or on a free transfer in the summer, would be a major coup.

This season, Guehi has averaged an impressive rating of 7.40 on popular stats site SofaScore, and has managed three clean sheets in four games. Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner also emphasised that if his side had allowed the player to leave, they would likely not have gone onto lift the FA Cup and qualify for European competition.

The Cityzens did not win any trophies last season and it was a big failure in their eyes. They will not want to repeat that again, and in order to do this, they need a defence that they can rely on consistently, both in terms of game time and in terms of quality.

The club will be dreaming of lifting the UEFA Champions League trophy again, but currently, they are only sixth favourites to win the title, with a 10% chance of winning the Champions League.

With Guehi’s contract running out, Palace were close to fully accepting a £35 million bid from Liverpool in the summer and this was already a bargain price. Manchester City could easily match a bid like this in January to beat clubs battling for his signature on a free transfer.

If they were to improve their defence by signing the top centre-back, they would no doubt jump up the odds and have a higher probability of winning the UEFA Champions League.

Whoever signs Marc Guehi will be picking up one of the best signings of the season, and Manchester City certainly have the resources available and the attractive footballing project to make sure it is them.