Liverpool prepare move for teenage defender as Marc Guehi alternative

Liverpool are favourites to sign Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace before the transfer window closes, but they have come up with a Plan B if they cannot get the deal done.

Guehi is into the final year of his contract at Selhurst Park and Eagles chairman Steve Parish has admitted that a move is likely, unless they can convince the centre-back to sign a new deal.

‘We’d have to do that, of course,’ Parish said of a Guehi exit. ‘For players of that calibre to leave on a free, it’s a problem for us unfortunately.

‘Joachim [Andersen] went [to Fulham last year] and we couldn’t afford to lose both. We then had another bid [for Guehi] in January but that was a different situation.

‘We’ll just have to see what happens. But it needs a new contract or a conclusion of some kind.’

Crystal Palace are looking for around £40m for the England international, with Liverpool keen to haggle that figure down, given his contract situation.

With Parish being pretty clear on the circumstances, it seems very likely that Guehi will leave this summer, but if he does not end up at Anfield, the Reds have identified another target in Serie A.

Parma’s 18-year-old centre-back Giovanni Leoni has caught Liverpool’s attention, despite having just 33 senior appearances to his name so far.

Sky Sport Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reports that the Reds are ‘advancing in the background’ for the teenager and are ‘seriously considering’ a move for him if they do not get Guehi.

The 6’5″ defender has already turned out for three clubs in his young career, starting at Padova in Serie C, where he made his debut at just 16 years old.

Sampdoria signed him initially on loan in February 2024, before moving to Parma last summer.

Leoni made 17 Serie A appearances last season as Parma battled against relegation, eventually finishing 16th in the Italian top flight.

As he does not turn 19 until December, Leoni would clearly be signed as back-up rather than competing for a place in the starting XI immediately, unlike Guehi.

If the Crystal Palace star is snapped up by the Reds this summer he will presumably be expecting to play regularly, challenging Ibrahima Konate for a place in Arne Slot’s team.

Konate’s future remains a little unclear as he is into the final year of his contract at Anfield and has been linked with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Liverpool have been busy in the transfer market this summer, signing Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, but are unlikely to be finished at that.

Not only are they likely to buy a centre-back, captain Virgil van Dijk feels they still need another forward in their ranks.

Speaking after Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace on Sunday, the Dutch defender told TalkSPORT: ‘Well, we just lost Darwin [Nunez], he went to Saudi and we lost Lucho (Luis Diaz), obviously he went to Bayern (Munich).

‘I think there’s always room for an attacker in order to strengthen us, so let’s see what the window brings in terms of the balance of the team.’

However, Slot is more concerned about his defence, responding to Van Dijk’s claims by saying: ‘I think we have more than enough options to be good enough to win again.

‘This is where I focus on myself. With the players we have, we should be able to win to score. That’s actually what we did as well. We scored twice (against Palace) and last season we only scored one against them, away and at home.

‘We could only score one against them. So my last concern at the moment is our offensive quality.

‘It’s more, it’s not a concern, but if I look at the amount of goals we’ve conceded in pre-season. That’s not of our standard.’