Transfer News: Chelsea have a clause to re-sign Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi
According to journalist Tom Barclay via GiveMeSport (h/t Football.London), Chelsea have inserted a special clause to re-sign Crystal Palace star Marc Guehi in the summer transfer window of 2023. They included the option when the defender left Stamford Bridge for Selhurst Park after the last campaign.
Guehi has been in fine form since the move to join Palace and has become an attractive prospect under the guidance of Patrick Vieira. That has seen the centre-back getting called up to the national team by Gareth Southgate. The central defender even featured the entire 90 minutes in their recent 2-1 victory over Switzerland.
Barclay has pointed out that the clause is not a buy-back option and that the process is much more complex. Supposedly, it offers the Blues the choice to re-sign the 21-year-old after next term, allowing them to match an interested party’s bid. handing Chelsea a first refusal of a sorts at landing the player.
“I don’t think they do have a buyback clause. My understanding is they have a clause, which kicks in next summer, where if another club makes a bid and it gets accepted then they have the right to match that bid and have it accepted. His story at Chelsea might not definitely be over, but it’s not as simple as Tino Livramento, for example, where if they just offer close to £38million, they can get him back.”
Complicated clause
Bringing back the Englishman would have been a great option for us this summer when we are at risk of losing three of our centre-backs on free transfers. However, the clause kicks into place only after the next campaign, which is a real blow for us. Not to mention, it also depends on certain factors, which means that the clause may not be activated.
First of all, Palace would need to be willing to sell the Premier League youngster and then accept bids from elsewhere. We can only trigger the option after that where we can use the clause to pip the competition no matter what if we are ready to match the bid.
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The ex-Blues ace has been terrific this season, having become a regular for his side in just a matter of time. He has featured in 33 games this term and has scored four goals while keeping ten clean sheets in the process across all competitions.
Guehi has shown an excellent ability to identify perfect opportunities to steal the ball off opponents. He surely has gained a lot of insight from the Arsenal legend Vieira and used that to refine his game, which is evident from the improvements so far. Should he continue to develop on this trajectory, we should bid for him even if the clause cannot be activated.