Marc Guehi leaned back, looked to the ceiling and faced questions about last summer’s collapsed transfer to Liverpool. Cornered in a rare interview, the club captain rejected the notion that the episode was painful, saying it “wasn’t difficult” to remain at Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
Reports said Guehi completed part of a Liverpool medical amid advanced negotiations before Palace executed a U-turn when it became clear they could not secure an adequate replacement. Manager Oliver Glasner has repeatedly denied suggestions that he threatened to quit during those hours.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky Sports three months on, Guehi bristled at the phrase “difficult summer.” “I think everyone has this perception and idea that it was difficult,” he said with a wry smile. “It actually wasn\u2019t difficult. It wasn\u2019t difficult at all because when you\u2019re focused on what\u2019s the most important thing it becomes easy.<\/p>\n
“I know that God has a plan for me and whatever that plan will be will come into fruition at some point. But the goal and the focus is always been playing football and trying to do that the best I can.”<\/p>\n
Guehi’s apparent calm is tempered by the clear reality that the route to a move remains open. The 25-year-old will be a free agent next summer and there is expected to be a queue of suitors. Liverpool could yet make a move as soon as January.<\/p>\n
Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp urged his old side to act, saying, “He would be a perfect fit for Liverpool.” After watching what was described as a calamitous defensive display against Leeds United on Saturday night, Redknapp added, “That\u2019s exactly what they need to play alongside Virgil van Dijk. Then you can mix it up and play a back three if you wanted to do that. They need to get another centre back in.”<\/p>\n
Those at Crystal Palace are understandably eager to hang on to their captain. Guehi’s Sky interview was conducted alongside defensive colleague Maxence Lacroix, who recalled his own reaction to the changing fortunes on Deadline Day. “To be honest, I will say when some people was saying that he will leave I was a little bit sad you know [in] my heart. ]”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palace captain Marc Guehi says remaining at the club ‘wasn’t difficult’ after the failed move still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[465,172,1163],"tags":[1032,1077,986],"class_list":["post-4941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-palace","category-epl","category-transfers","tag-contract-disputes","tag-contract-renewal","tag-contract-standoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}