Liverpool, by most accounts, won the summer transfer window. It’s probably the first time in the club’s history most would say as much, though it will take rather longer to determine whether winning the summer transfer window leads to Liverpool winning actual trophies that actually matter.
In amongst all the moves, all the deals, all the marquee signings though was one significant miss, as the Reds saw their move for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi blocked on deadline day when his club reneged after accepting Liverpool’s offer and with the player having undergone his medical.
For Liverpool, that failure meant changing their own plans and holding on to homegrown fan favourite Joe Gomez—something few fans would complain about, as helpful as signing Guehi might have been. There have been more questions, perhaps, about how Guehi feels about what happened.
“The sun goes up, the sun comes down, life goes on,” a sanguine Guehi told TNT Sports this week when asked about that failed move to join the Premier League champions on deadline day. “That’s my mindset, and if you adopt that mindset in most things you can get on with life and move on.
“Fortunately for me I’m at a club that has helped me and given me so much, so it does make it easier. Having my family, friends, people that have always been there for me, and then the club, the people that you work with every day. When they’re joking and laughing and smiling, it makes it easier.”
It also probably makes it easier that Palace, who most expected to drop off this season, have instead started the 2025-26 season in fine form. They currently sit third after six games, just three points off table toppers Liverpool having handed the Reds their first defeat of the season last weekend.
A genuine top four challenge might be a stretch, but having won their first major trophy last season with the FA Cup—their previous silverware amounted to second division titles in 1993-94 and 1978-79—and then beating Liverpool in the Community Shield, it would be foolish to rule anything out.
And for Guehi, the consensus is he will be a Liverpool player eventually, and is now likely to join on a free transfer next summer when his contract at Palace expires. In football, though, eight months is a long time and Guehi, Palace, and Liverpool have plenty to worry about before then.