“Bang the doors & sign him in January” “Solid player to win you the league”- Joe Cole urges Chelsea to sign top Barcelona target.
Joe Cole has told Chelsea to ‘bang the doors down’ to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi ahead of the January transfer window.
Guehi is out of contract at the end of the season with Palace boss Oliver Glasner confirming the player won’t be signing a new deal at the club.
Liverpool were on the verge of signing Guehi last summer and agreed a £35m deal with Palace for the former Chelsea academy graduate.
Guehi had even completed a medical only for Palace to pull out of the deal on deadline day after failing to sign a replacement for the defender.
It was thought that Liverpool would reattempt to sign Guehi in January but recent reports claim that the chance of that happening is now ‘slim’.
That’s according to The Athletic, while some other outlets have reported that La Liga side Barcelona are now leading the race for the 25-year-old.
Barcelona are understood to be closely monitoring Guehi and, unlike Liverpool, can open pre-contract negotiations from January 1.
It is rumoured that Barcelona have made two formal approaches to Guehi’s representatives in the past fortnight.
But Cole wants his former club Chelsea to bring in Guehi to strengthen a defence which struggled in a 3-1 defeat to Leeds United on Wednesday.
Cole: Guehi would help young Chelsea stars.
Quizzed about the Palace star, Cole told Paddy Power: ‘Marc Guehi would be someone you bang the doors down for to sign.
‘He is someone who can come in and help the young group, he knows the club inside out.
‘It’s a no-brainer, but it won’t be something that’s on the cards for Chelsea, simply because it’s against where the club are heading in terms of signing younger players.
‘I personally don’t like January for signing players, as even after the Leeds defeat, Chelsea are where they should be, gently nudging your Arsenal and Man City’s of the world as title contenders.