Roy Hodgson blames both Palace AND Liverpool over Guehi transfer collapse

  /  autty

Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi looked set to leave the club for Liverpool on transfer deadline day, only for the big-money move to collapse at the eleventh hour

Marc Guehi will remain at Crystal Palace, at least until the new year, and former Palace boss Roy Hodgson believes both the Eagles and Liverpool need to shoulder the blame. Guehi looked set for an Anfield move on deadline day, even filming a farewell message, only for the Eagles to pull the plug on the move.

As a result, Palace will likely miss out on a fee for the centre-back, who was likely to fetch around £35million despite being in the final year of his contract. Liverpool, meanwhile, will have to make do without an experienced England international at the back.

"He's [Guehi] the person I feel really sorry for," Hodgson told talkSPORT. "Because if right at the beginning it had been made clear his task ahead would be to stay at Crystal Palace and there'd be no question he'd be leaving in the transfer window, then I'm sure he would have got his head around that.

"But having been led to believe sooner or later a deal would be done between the clubs, I guess that his head for the last period of time has been he was going to move. He's the loser in the situation.

"Palace should be the winner because he's such a good player and to have a player, captain and leader of that calibre should be advantageous. But it remains to be seen how upset he may have been by what's happened during these past few hours."

It was still a very busy summer for Liverpool, even without the Guehi deal materialising. They spent more than £400m on new signings, including nine-figure deals for Isak and Florian Wirtz, while Hugo Ekitike joined for £79m from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Arne Slot's Reds also brought in close to £200m through player sales. These included big-money exits for Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, wile Real Madrid paid more than £8m to release Trent Alexander-Arnold from his contract a few weeks early.

Guehi scored for Palace in their last league game before deadline day, helping Oliver Glasner's side win 3-0 away to Aston Villa. After that win, Glasner - who is reported to have threatened to quit if Guehi was sold - stressed the importance of the skipper.

"I told this to the chairman, we have to keep Marc if we want to play a successful season," Glasner told Match of the Day. "We have no chance to find the right replacement in one day.

"We all agreed that we just sell Marc if we have the right replacement in the building. We wanted a replacement by the 1st July. We have this agreement so it is clear from me. He is such a crucial player. He is one of our key players - he is our captain. Again, if we want to play a successful season we have to keep him."

Related: Liverpool Crystal Palace Oliver Glasner Hodgson Guehi
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