Joe Cole has told Chelsea to ‘bang the doors down’ to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi ahead of the January transfer window.
Guehi is out of contract at the end of the season with Palace boss Oliver Glasner confirming the player won’t be signing a new deal at the club.
Liverpool were on the verge of signing Guehi last summer and agreed a £35m deal with Palace for the former Chelsea academy graduate.
Guehi had even completed a medical only for Palace to pull out of the deal on deadline day after failing to sign a replacement for the defender.
It was thought that Liverpool would reattempt to sign Guehi in January but recent reports claim that the chance of that happening is now ‘slim’.
Get personalised updates on Chelsea every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
That’s according to The Athletic, while some other outlets have reported that La Liga side Barcelona are now leading the race for the 25-year-old.
Barcelona are understood to be closely monitoring Guehi and, unlike Liverpool, can open pre-contract negotiations from January 1.
It is rumoured that Barcelona have made two formal approaches to Guehi’s representatives in the past fortnight.
But Cole wants his former club Chelsea to bring in Guehi to strengthen a defence which struggled in a 3-1 defeat to Leeds United on Wednesday.
Cole: Guehi would help young Chelsea stars
Quizzed about the Palace star, Cole told Paddy Power: ‘Marc Guehi would be someone you bang the doors down for to sign.
‘He is someone who can come in and help the young group, he knows the club inside out.
‘It’s a no-brainer, but it won’t be something that’s on the cards for Chelsea, simply because it’s against where the club are heading in terms of signing younger players.
‘I personally don’t like January for signing players, as even after the Leeds defeat, Chelsea are where they should be, gently nudging your Arsenal and Man City’s of the world as title contenders.
‘It’s all well and good performing like they did against Arsenal with ten men, but you have to then go to Leeds and get a result if you’re going to challenge for the title.
‘That’s just factual. When you start that game at Elland Road, with the history of the fixture and how Daniel Farke likes to set his teams up, it’s so difficult to pull it back from 2-0 when you’re in the eye of that storm.’
Chelsea are back in action on Saturday as they face AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Enzo Maresca’s team are fourth in the top-flight table with 14 games played this term.