Who is Marc Guehi? Crystal Palace's new £18m centre-back
In the same window, Chelsea have sold two promising young centre-backs. Granted, there will be clauses involved that may well see the pair end up at Stamford Bridge in the future, but the departures of Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guehi robs the Blues of two up and coming stars at the heart of the defence.
They had little say in the exit of Tomori, who secured a loan move to AC Milan with an option to buy back in January following a lack of game time at Stamford Bridge, and while they have recouped £18m through the sale of Guehi to Crystal Palace, supporters were hoping the centre-back would be given a chance to prove his worth in west London.
The 21-year-old enjoyed an excellent 18 months on loan with Swansea, twice helping the south Wales side to a playoff finish, only to fall to Brentford on both occasions. The regular game time served Guehi well given his high profile move to Palace on Sunday and he is expected to arrive at Selhurst Park with an eye on consolidating a first team spot under recently appointed head coach Patrick Vieira.
Palace have made no secret of their desire to clear out the deadwood this summer. Centre-backs Gary Cahill, Mamadou Sakho and Scott Dann were among 11 players to leave the Eagles following the culmination of the 2020/21 season. Cheikhou Kouyate, a midfielder by trade, started 32 games at centre-back, while James Tomkins is the only other senior centre-back on the books at the time of writing, and even then injury restricted him to just six league starts last term.
Yet while Guehi will be under pressure to transfer his Championship form to the Premier League, the youngster has all the composure of a seasoned pro, with his time under Steve Cooper at Swansea enabling him to develop accordingly. A total of 1.6 interceptions per 90 ranked among the top 50 players to have made 25 or more Championship appearances last season as Guehi sought to utilise the mental qualities at his disposal to deny opponents.
That isn't to say Guehi shirked his physical capabilities, far from it in fact. No player aged 21 or under had a better tackle success rate in England's two top tiers than Guehi (84.6%) last season, with an average of 1.6 tackles per 90 also a solid return and going some way to explaining a statistically calculated WhoScored strength of 'tackling'.
Guehi doesn't necessarily need to make tackles to deny opponents, but is able to time them well when the opportunity presents itself, further reinforced in that he committed just 0.8 fouls per 90 for Swansea last season. Considering Swansea's possession average of 50.2% was the 10th best in the Championship, it wasn't as though the Swans dominated teams, which shows how composed an individual Guehi is, a trait that will benefit a Palace outfit that ranked 18th for possession (42.9%) in the Premier League last term.
Of course, Palace's approach will likely change with Vieira at the Selhurst Park helm. During his time as Nice boss, the Frenchman favoured a more patient, possession-based approach, and it's here where there is work to be done on Guehi. In his first loan stint with Swansea, his pass success rate was a modest 84.7%, but that dropped to 76.9% last season, despite his passes per 90 falling from 61.3 to 46.5.
The composure to his defending is clear for all to see, yet Guehi needs to improve on his distribution if he is to succeed for Palace and ensure Vieira doesn't endure the same fate as Frank de Boer at the Selhurst Park helm. Nevertheless, at 21 years of age, it's an area of weakness that can be improved upon and under a manager of Vieira's ilk, who'll look to ensure his players abide by his possession demands, the 45-year-old will work tirelessly with Guehi to develop this side of his game. "When he was at Nice he did some really good work there and I’m really excited to work with him," Guehi said of Vieira after the move across London was confirmed, so it's a relationship that will benefit both player and manager.
To go with the arrival of Michael Olise from Reading, and capture of the currently-sidelined Eberechi Eze from QPR last summer, Crystal Palace are assembling a squad composing of some of the best young talent from the Championship over the last two seasons. There is still business to be done to bring in new faces to cover the mass summer exits, yet Guehi's signing is another sign of the direction Palace are headed, and one that excites fans.
