Michael Owen offers Marc Guehi transfer verdict and urges Liverpool to sign England teammate

It has been established that Liverpool will be in the market for a central defender and a wide forward this summer. The identity of the players in question remains to be seen, though.

The Reds made a bid for Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon . It may have been an "opportunistic" move, to use a word sporting director Richard Hughes deployed in Arne Slot’s first press conference , but the interest would obviously have been strong considering the financial sums involved.

As for a center-back, there have been rumors regarding the likes Leny Yoro and Riccardo Calafiori . Another name in the frame is Crystal Palace and England defender Marc Guehi. Former Liverpool forward Michael Owen has given his verdict on the 24-year-old and has also made a suggestion for whom the Reds should purchase to fulfill their wide forward needs.

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Owen gave his thoughts to Prime Casino , and they were positive regarding the England international who was among his country’s top performers at Euro 2024. “Marc Guehi is obviously a very good player, I can't imagine Crystal Palace will want to lose another player,” he said.

“He's proven in this tournament that he's very good. Left-sided centre-halves are like gold dust these days, people want them,” Owen continued. “He's proven he can play at a really high level so I've no doubt he would be capable of playing for a club like Liverpool or Manchester United .”

In terms of an attacking player, Owen framed his thoughts around a potential exit for Mohamed Salah . “The Mo Salah chat has sort of faded a little bit so I'd be surprised if he left Liverpool, but the problem for the club is that he hasn’t got long left on his contract so you have to make a decision one way or the other,” he said.

“They have great options at the moment with Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez, but if one of them left then Jarrod Bowen would be my favourite,” Owen added, before sounding a note of caution. “But he has signed a long-term contract at West Ham and he might even be their captain.”

“He also isn’t 19 so when you talk about a long-term replacement, you’re looking at players that might give you 10 years and not be in their 30s in two or three years. I’m not sure clubs want to spend 10s and 10s of millions on those players nowadays,” Owen concluded.

Liverpool.com says: While both Bowen and Guehi would be decent additions to the Liverpool squad, their cost would likely be prohibitively expensive. Owen may need to dial down his targets for his former club.