Chelsea ‘weigh up’ Marc Guéhi approach after Wesley Fofana ACL, Trevoh Chalobah concern — report

Marc Guéhi was one of the best young center backs to come through the Chelsea Academy in recent years, but at the time of his ascension, there wasn’t much room for him in the first-team. Obviously, we could’ve made room, but we chose to stick with the same group that got us the 2021 Champions League Trophy just a few months before instead, and let Guéhi leave for Crystal Palace in a transfer worth around £18-20m.

That decision has backfired in some respect, with half of that group (Antonio Rüdiger, Andreas Christensen) leaving for free barely twelve months later, forcing us to dip back into the transfer market and spend big on the likes of Wesley Fofana and Benoît Badiashile. While both of them have been good when healthy, they are both currently injured — and in Fofana’s case, unlikely to play again this season after tearing his ACL last week. (And it’s hardly the first major injury in his young career.)

Badiashile should be back in a couple months from his hamstring problem, but even when he does return, questions would remain about our depth at that position. Thiago Silva has defied the laws of spacetime and the universe, but he can’t keep going forever. Levi Colwill’s future is still uncertain. As is Trevoh Chalobah’s, and he himself is now dealing with a potential injury concern after last night’s friendly against Wrexham where he was forced to come off a few minutes from time — and replaced by Marc Cucurella, which is not something anyone wants to see happen at center back.

Considering all that, The Guardian’s report earlier on Wednesday that Chelsea are weighing up a move for Guéhi may be looking a lot less speculative than just a few hours ago.

Chelsea do not have a buy-back on the 23-year-old Guéhi, but we do have a clause that allows to match any accepted bid from other teams (and possibly a sell-on as well, which would effectively give us a discount). No other club have bid (yet?) for the Palace standout, but the report claims that £50m might be a reasonable fee. That’s over twice what Palace paid in 2021, but that’s the price of doing business and undoing mistakes.