In the January transfer window, while clubs were splashing nine-figure sums on half-finished projects, Manchester City quietly slipped Marc Guehi through the door for £20 million. In a market inflated beyond reason, that figure looked suspicious. Two months later, it looks criminal.
Four appearances. Four starts. Pep Guardiola hasn’t even considered dropping him.
The numbers tell part of the story. In just four City appearances, Guehi has contributed 2 goals and 2 assists in the league so far. Across his 2025-26 Premier League season, he’s won 23 tackles, made 30 interceptions, and drawn 21 fouls, the profile of a defender who doesn’t just sit in position and hope, but actively hunts the ball and invites contact without flinching. His 12 crosses from a defensive role further underline a player who offers far more than his price tag ever suggested.
What the raw numbers don’t capture, Guardiola’s words do. “He’s a great, great, great signing for Man City for the next five, six, seven, eight years,” the City manager said, with the kind of certainty that made it sound less like praise and more like prophecy. “It’s not the skills, it’s the mentality, professionalism, how he lives many, many things.” High praise from a man who doesn’t deal in flattery.
The Anfield performance was the moment Guehi announced himself on the biggest stage. City have fielded better teams at that ground and left empty-handed. But when Liverpool turned the screws in the second half, Guehi stood firm at the heart of a defence that refused to buckle. His ability to read situations, to position himself ahead of danger rather than react to it, bailed City out repeatedly. It was no coincidence that when Rodri was substituted late at Tottenham shortly before, it was Guehi who was offered the captain’s armband on just his second appearance. Some players take months to earn that kind of trust. Guehi earned it in days.
His statistical profile adds nuance to the picture. Sitting in the 88.7th percentile for progressive carries and 88.2nd for progressive passes, he is, by every measure, an elite ball-carrier from deep. Guardiola’s system demands defenders who can initiate attacks as naturally as they snuff them out, and Guehi fits that blueprint almost perfectly. His aerial duel win rate in the 59.5th percentile suggests a defender who wins his battles through positioning and anticipation rather than brute force, which is exactly the kind of intelligence Pep prizes above all else.
Crystal Palace would rather not think about this one. Manchester City found a defender who looks built for the next half-decade at the Etihad, slipped him in through the back door, and the rest of the league barely noticed until it was too late.
Twenty million pounds. Unmovable from the first XI. Some bargains announce themselves quietly, and then all at once.
