Arsenal ready to enter Marc Guehi transfer race after Man City make first move

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Arsenal are ready to enter the race for England defender Marc Guehi .

Manchester City have become red-hot favourites to sign the Crystal Palace captain after making a big push to get the deal done this month. But Arsenal have joined the likes of Liverpool and Bayern Munich who all have a genuine interest in the 25-year-old who becomes a free agent this summer.

It remains to be seen whether Arsenal would be willing to make bid or would bide their time until the summer when Guehi’s contract expires. But Arsenal held an interest last summer in Guehi before deciding to go in a different direction and signed Spain prospect Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia while Piero Hincapie also arrived from Bayer Leverkusen.

However, Arsenal remain big admirers and there will be no shortage of takers among Europe’s top clubs should Guehi decide to stay put at Palace for the last six months of his contract and then leave for free.

It will also take a huge offer from City to persuade Palace to sell this month even though his contract is running down. Liverpool had a bid of £35m plus £5m in add-ons accepted last summer but did not get the deal over the line on transfer deadline day.

Palace know they can get a similar fee in January because City are very keen after losing key defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias to injury with John Stones also out. Palace will have to weigh up the potential value of keeping Guehi as the club are still in Europe, have the FA Cup ahead of them and still have ambitions of getting into a European place.

That means they could end up demanding around £40m and it will test City’s resolve while any club trying to do a deal now will know that Guehi could command a bigger contract in the summer as a free agent.

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HAVE YOUR SAY! Where should Marc Guehi go? Comment below .

City would have to pay huge wages and a big transfer fee and it means that, while they are in the box seat, other clubs are watching with interest about the chances of a deal now or further down the line.

There still remains uncertainty over Pep Guardiola ’s long term future, although Enzo Maresca - who has been mooted as a replacement - wanted Chelsea to push to re-sign Guehi while he was in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool remain interested while Bayern Munich’s interest is incredibly strong and manager Vincent Kompany is a big fan, while Harry Kane would push hard to get his England teammate to Germany.

Arsenal may see Guehi as a no-brainer on a free in the summer because of his versatility even though they are well stocked in defence with William Saliba and Gabriel one of the best defensive partnerships in the Premier League .

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However, Arsenal showed last summer, with sporting director Andrea Berta leading the charge, they are ambitious in the market and want strong competition in all departments. Signing arguably England’s best defender as a free transfer would be a huge opportunity and one Arsenal would be keen on.

“Honestly I don’t know what will happen,” Palace boss Oliver Glasner said about Guehi this week. “If you're just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay. The chairman will tell you the same. But it's not one-dimensional.

“Nothing in life is one-dimensional. So if you see the financial situation, it's very important. Everybody wants him to play for Crystal Palace, sign a new contract and stay here forever.

"That's what everybody will tell you. On the other side, there's the situation that the contract ends in summer and if somebody is coming, there will be a moment when the club says, now the financial issue is more important than the sport issue. I’m not so naive not to know that if a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”

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