Marc Gu\u00e9hi has reflected on just how close he came to joining Liverpool in 2025 before the proposed move dramatically fell apart.<\/p>\n
Nearly five months have passed since Liverpool reached an agreement worth \u00a335m with Crystal Palace for the England defender, only for the deal to collapse in the final hours of deadline day when Palace ran out of time to secure a replacement. That late breakdown proved costly, as Manchester City moved quickly earlier this month to sign the 25-year-old for just \u00a320m, with Liverpool opting not to reignite their interest amid concerns he no longer represented value in the market.<\/p>\n
Gu\u00e9hi was on the brink of completing his Liverpool medical
\nSpeaking to the Daily Mail, Gu\u00e9hi has now publicly addressed the failed transfer, revealing that he was moments away from completing his medical and had even undergone an MRI scan before Palace halted the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very close. Very close,\u201d Gu\u00e9hi said. \u201cThe medical was basically done and then it was pulled at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also noted that England teammates John Stones and Phil Foden later played a role in persuading him to make the switch to Manchester City.<\/p>\n
Liverpool continue to feel the fallout
\nWhile Liverpool must move on from what might have been, Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s comments have reopened old wounds for supporters\u2014particularly in light of the club\u2019s defensive struggles since last summer.<\/p>\n
Just weeks after the deal collapsed, Giovanni Leoni suffered a serious ACL injury, leaving Arne Slot with only three senior centre-backs. Joe Gomez has since been sidelined again, while Ibrahima Konat\u00e9\u2019s recent compassionate leave forced midfielder Wataru Endo into emergency defensive duty during the defeat at Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
As Liverpool battled another injury crisis, Gu\u00e9hi was impressing on his Manchester City debut, helping them to a clean-sheet win over Wolves.<\/p>\n
Frustration over how the transfer unraveled is unlikely to fade quickly, but sporting director Richard Hughes must now focus forward. The clearest solution is securing an experienced, first-team centre-back for Slot before Liverpool\u2019s defensive issues deepen further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marc Gu\u00e9hi has reflected on just how close he came to joining Liverpool in 2025 before the proposed move dramatically fell apart. Nearly five months have passed since Liverpool reached an agreement worth \u00a335m with Crystal Palace for the England defender, only for the deal to collapse in the final hours of deadline day when …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":57994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_1605.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57995,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57993\/revisions\/57995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}