Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has slammed his old club and called for an investigation into why Marc Guehi was allowed to leave for Crystal Palace back in 2021, while also warning that future transfer mistakes are around the corner.
Guehi was being tipped to be a mainstay of the Blues backline for years to come after rising through Chelsea’s academy ranks, having joined the club at the age of just six.
However, after making only two first-team appearances for Chelsea, he then spent 18 months on loan at Championship side Swansea City, with his performances catching the eye of a number of Premier League clubs.
One of those clubs, Crystal Palace, ended up forking out around £18million for Guehi, who enjoyed FA Cup and Community Shield wins at Selhurst Park before heading to Manchester City for just £20m in the winter window.
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Since then, the England star has seamlessly slotted into Pep Guardiola’s backline and came back to haunt his old club, as he grabbed his first league goal for City in a 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge last weekend.
And Cole is still ruing the decision to let Guehi leave, even five years on, as he reflected on Sunday’s result and the central defender’s role in City’s fine win.
“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,’ Cole said 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.”
Cole also feels that Chelsea will continue to make similar mistakes in the transfer market, unless they investigate why a player of Guehi’s quality was allowed to join Palace five years ago.
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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.”
