Chelsea told to hijack £35m Liverpool transfer after blunt Enzo Maresca demand

Chelsea have been told to make a move for Marc Guehi to solve their problems in the centre of defence. The Blues were hit by the news that key defender Levi Colwill will miss most of the season when they returned for pre-season, and Enzo Maresca now has fewer options that he'd like.

And ex-Tottenham boss TIm Sherwood thinks Chelsea academy product Guehi is ideally suited to returning to Stamford Bridge. The Palace star has one-year remaining on his contract at Selhurst Park and Liverpool are hoping to land the England international.

Guehi won't come cheap despite his contract situation, with the Eagles and Liverpool still apart in their value of the player. The Reds currently hold the possibility of waiting until next summer, so Chelsea could yet take advantage.

But, Maresca has been told to work with internal options despite making clear he felt the team required a new addition to fill the gap left by Colwill. Against Crystal Palace, with Tosin Adarabioyo also reporting injured, 19-year-old Josh Acheampong accompanied Trevoh Chalobah in defence.

Speaking last weeek, the ex-Manchester CIty coach revealed that he wanted a new central defender but that the club would look to internal options. Maresca said: "I think we need a central defender. We are looking for an internal solution but as I said, the club know exactly what I think."

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Sherwood thinks Chelsea should act now and that Palace cannot risk allowing their captain to depart for free. "Marc Guehi is the obvious choice for Chelsea to replace Levi Colwill at centre-back,” Sherwood told BetBrain.

"He’s a player that will hit the ground running at Chelsea, having already played in the Premier League for a few years and to a very high standard. They can risk waiting until next season when his contract at Crystal Palace expires, but there’ll be a queue to sign him, without doubt.

"It looks like both Liverpool and Chelsea have turned Guehi’s head away from Palace. Ibrahima Konate is out of contract next season for Liverpool and while Guehi might not start ahead of him or Virgil van Dijk, he’d be a solid replacement if either left the club. Even if Konate stayed, the best teams in the league have high quality cover in every position and Guehi would fit that bill.

"My feeling is Steve Parish will want to try and keep hold of Guehi for as long as possible, but Palace know they can’t allow him to leave for free – it’d be a huge loss."

Maresca has emphasised his desire to replace Colwill's attributes in the team. The Italian coach believes he is short of options in being able to replicate the defender's profile.

"When we build, we build with Levi in the middle," said Maresca. "Last year we played 64 games and we played all 64 games with either Levi or Tosin [Adarabioyo in the middle].

"Now Levi is out. The only other one that he can do that job well is Tosin. But we have Premier League, Champions League, with these kind of players.

"The rest, they can adapt. [Jorrel] Hato is a new one, he never played as the guy in the middle last season [with Ajax], so it's not about being a central defender.

"Yes, [he is a] central defender but can he do that? It's different. Also we have players that unfortunately, like Wes [Fofana] or Benoit [Badiashile], they have in this moment some [injury] problems.

"The one in the middle in my way is so, so, so important. And this is the reason why I said that the club knows exactly what I think about central defenders."

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