Joe Cole slams Chelsea for selling £18m star who could have captained club

Joe Cole has called for Chelsea bosses to conduct an investigation to get to the bottom of why Marc Guehi was allowed to leave the club for Crystal Palace back in 2021.

Guehi had been tipped for a bright future at Stamford Bridge while rising through Chelsea’s academy ranks having joined the club at the age of just six.

But the central defender made only two first-team appearances for the Blues before spending a year-and-a-half spell on loan with Swansea City in the Championship.

Guehi played every single minute of the 2020/21 campaign as the Swans missed out on promotion via the play-offs, catching the attention of a number of top teams in the Premier League in the process.

He would go on to depart Chelsea for London rivals Crystal Palace in a deal worth around £18million – and it was at Selhurst Park that a star was truly born.

FA Cup and Community Shield victories saw Guehi cement his place in Palace history last season before another high-profile move followed in January, as Manchester City saw off strong competition to land the England international for a fee of just £20m.

In the three months that have passed, Guehi has since slotted into City’s defence as if he has been there for years, with Pep Guardiola’s men threatening to chase down Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title.

It was Guehi’s composed strike on Sunday – his first league goal for his new club – that doubled City’s advantage in an emphatic 3-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

‘For me, the big moment in the game from a Chelsea perspective, and from a Manchester City perspective, was when Marc Guehi scored the goal,’ ex-Chelsea winger Cole said of Guehi’s superb 57th-minute strike on The Dressing Room Podcast.

‘It was a great finish but I look at where Chelsea are as a club, desperately trying to find a centre-half, spending hundreds of millions of pounds… you had a kid [Guehi] in the building.

‘He came over and spoke to us and he’s so assured, he’s a captain. You see him play and he’s calm.

‘He came from Chelsea from the age of six, we sold him to Crystal Palace and now he’s at Manchester City and he looks like he’s been there for 20 years.

‘The ball into him from Rayan Cherki and the finish was just sublime.’

According to Cole, Chelsea will continue to make similar mistakes in the transfer market unless they conduct an inquest into why and how Guehi was sold to Palace five years ago.

He continued: ‘I’m looking at him and I’m thinking: how has this kid got a Manchester City shirt on? The team should have been built around him five years ago.

‘Whoever has let him out the door at Chelsea… if I’m the owner, I’m going, “Right, who’s decision, or what collective of people’s decision, was it to think it was a good idea to let this kid leave the club?”.

‘Everyone would go, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me!”… unless you find out who is making these decisions, these decisions will continue to happen and you’ll keep losing players like that. You need to do an appraisal on it.’

After getting on the scoresheet in west London, Guehi thanked those who had helped him on his journey into first-team football during his early days at Chelsea.

‘I wouldn’t be here without this football club,’ Guehi told BBC Sport.

‘I am eternally grateful to every single member of the staff who helped me in the academy and the club for picking me up at such a young age, to Frank Lampard and Jody Morris for giving me my debut when I was here.

‘It’s nice to be back.’

On City’s performance against Chelsea, Guehi added: ‘It was a tough game. There are no easy games in the Premier League.

‘First half, we did well in spells. You could see how good Chelsea were in their shape and they were making things difficult for us.

‘But a lot of players stepped up in the second half and really grateful for the win.

‘Fortunately, I am playing with a lot of top players. So you never know when the ball is going to come, so you have to be ready always. I think I did OK with the finish.’

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