Sam Allardyce has claimed that Liverpool’s failure to complete the signing of Marc Guehi last year turned out to be a major sliding doors moment in their season.
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On the final day of the summer transfer window, the Reds agreed a £35m deal to sign the then-Crystal Palace captain, only for Selhurst Park chiefs to pull the plug on the transfer as they didn’t have time to sign a replacement.
Four months later, the England international joined Manchester City for a cut-price £20m, with Pep Guardiola’s side also beating us to the punch for Antoine Semenyo over the winter.
Allardyce: Missing out on Guehi was a ‘massive loss’ for Liverpool
Liverpool’s season disintegrated since the sickening collapse of their deal for Guehi, with Arne Slot’s side conceding an embarrassing total of 52 goals in the Premier League with one match still to play, and Allardyce feels that the Reds never recovered from the fateful events of 1 September.
He said on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast: “What was a huge loss was not signing Guehi. That was a massive loss. You look at what Man City have done – everyone goes on about Semenyo.
“At the other end, Guehi has stopped City’s leaky defence. They were leaking goals like I’d never seen them before, like Liverpool now.”
(Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
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Liverpool messed up massively by not signing Guehi
It’s no use crying over what could’ve been, but it’s hard to disagree with Allardyce that not getting the Guehi transfer over the line has left monumental regrets for Liverpool.
FSG’s gamble on waiting until the final days of the summer transfer window to submit an offer backfired, with Palace likely to have let the deal go through and focus on signing a replacement if the Reds had made their move even a week or two earlier.
To compound the folly, LFC chose not to go back in for the 25-year-old in January when they had the chance (and when they were in a much worse league position than four months previously) because they no longer viewed it as a market opportunity. That bull-headedness has come back to bit the Anfield hierarchy big time.
Since his move to the Etihad Stadium, Guehi has been ever-present in Man City’s 15 Premier League games, losing none and conceding just 12 goals (0.8 per game). Prior to that, they’d shipped 21 goals in 22 top-flight matches (0.95 per game).
Contrast that with Liverpool’s record of 52 goals conceded in 37 matches in the division, an average of 1.4 per game. The numbers speak for themselves.
FSG can’t change the past, but they can definitely learn from it. If an opportunity like this comes around again, they need to be so much more proactive and get the deal done without risking any of the drama which sunk what seemed a certain move for the England defender.