Patrick Vieira’s first season at Crystal Palace has been an encouraging one, which has seen the likes of loanee Conor Gallagher, homegrown star Tyrick Mitchell and summer-signing Marc Guehi develop into England senior squad members – having all received call-ups this international break.
With the likes of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Tayo Adaramola on the verge of a first-team breakthrough after showing impressive development at U23 level, the French manager could maintain his reputation for developing youth through next campaign too.
However, without European football, developing youth often comes with a cost – top teams with continental reputation circling around their talent – and this summer could spell disaster if Chelsea re-sign former prospect Guehi.
What’s the news?
According to The Daily Express, Chelsea have a ‘hidden clause’ to re-sign the Ivory Coast-born centre-back this summer, and will be allowed to match any bid that comes in which is accepted.
With Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger all currently set to see their contracts expire with the current Champions League holders, it would make sense for them to go back in for their youth academy graduate, who has become a Premier League level defender across London with Palace.
A monumental loss for Vieira
Former England U21 teammate Joe Bursik and current teammate Gallagher heaped praise on the centre-back a year ago, describing him as “an absolute tank” who is “like having a brick wall in front of you, he’s massive.”
Guehi has certainly backed that up this season in the Premier League, averaging a 7.02 match rating according to SofaScore, The second highest out of the entire Palace team – with just Gallagher averaging higher with a match rating of 7.24.
James Tomkins and Joachim Andersen are the next best performing centre-backs at the South-London club, but neither of them have been able to replicate the England international’s form this campaign, and Vieira will be desperate to centre his backline around him for the foreseeable future.
Guehi, now rated at £27m by Transfermarkt, has become one of the world’s most exciting young talents, ranking among central defenders across Europe’s top five leagues and continental competitions in the top 2% for least times dribbled past per 90 (0.18), top 5% for least fouls committed per 90 (0.50), and top 16% for successful pressure percentage per 90 (40.1%).
It wouldn’t come as a surprise to Palace fans to find out one of their club’s most prized possessions is already the subject of transfer gossip – but Vieira will surely pull out all the stops in order to convince their star defender to stay at the club for the foreseeable.
However, if he does walk away after just a year, it will no doubt represent a huge summer disaster; he is far too important to the Eagles.
In other news: “There is a feeling..” – CPFC dealt big injury setback that will leave Vieira worried