Wayne Rooney predicts Arsenal and Chelsea will rival Liverpool for ‘special’ signing

Wayne Rooney says he expects Arsenal and Chelsea to join Liverpool in the race to sign Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi next summer.

Guehi, widely regarded to be among the most complete central defenders in English football, had appeared on the cusp of a transfer move to Liverpool before the 2024/25 campaign got underway.

However, Palace chairman Steve Parish decided to pull the plug on the proposed £35million deal at the 11th hour, with the FA Cup winners failing to secure a replacement for the England international.

Igor Julio had been identified as Palace’s top target at centre-back, but the Brighton defender went on to join West Ham on loan, putting the kibosh on Guehi’s dream deadline-day move to Anfield.

It means Guehi can leave on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season and Selhurst Park bosses recognise that they will be powerless should the 25-year-old make his way towards the exit door.

While Liverpool are continuing to closely monitor on the situation, the Premier League champions know that Guehi will be free to commit to a pre-contract to foreign clubs as of January 1.

‘He’s in a great position,’ former Manchester United and England captain Rooney said of Guehi on the latest episode of The Wayne Rooney Show.

‘I’ve heard a lot of people saying that he’s acted with class. What he’s done is he’s probably gone into the owner and the manager and said, “Listen, I want to leave”, but he’s just gone in and trained.

‘He’s gone in and been a team-mate which you have to do.

‘You can’t say, “Right, I want to leave”, and not turn up for a week or two weeks. He’s done his job which he gets paid to do and that’s all he’s done!

‘I think he’s a special player. He’s a good size, he’s not the tallest but he’s good in the air, he can play with both feet, he’s aggressive and I think he’ll be a real top player over the next few years. Will he be at Palace? I really doubt it.’

Asked which club he would choose if he was in Guehi’s position, Rooney joked: ‘Definitely not Liverpool!

‘I think he’ll have options and I think not just in England, in Europe he’ll have options.

‘I’ve just got a feeling that Arsenal and Chelsea might come in and they might try and take Liverpool out of it.

‘But Liverpool, for me, is the best city in the world so if he does join he can enjoy everything about Liverpool, but I just hope he doesn’t because he will improve them.’

Alan Shearer, meanwhile, felt Guehi showed exactly why Palace opted to block his move to Liverpool with an ‘outstanding’ showing against the champions on Saturday.

‘It was a big thing keeping Guehi because he was the outstanding defender,’ the legendary ex-Newcastle and England striker said on The Rest Is Football Podcast.

‘And you can understand exactly why Liverpool wanted to sign him, as well as other clubs but also why [Oliver] Glasner and Palace wanted to keep him so badly.

‘Ibrahima Konate got robbed two or three times and they should have scored with a couple of his errors.

‘But it’s a bit of a concern for Liverpool, defensively they’ve not been great at all, the chances and the way Palace went through them with ease, it was so easy for them at times. It would be a big concern.’

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