Arne Slot, the boss of Liverpool, is ready to do everything possible to sign Marc Guehi. Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes have both “convinced” Slot to move for the Crystal Palace defender, and three other possible Virgil van Dijk successors have also been identified.

Van Dijk, the captain of the Reds, moved to Anfield from Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million. He has been a big part of Liverpool’s success since then, winning seven major titles, including the Champions League just 18 months after he arrived and the Premier League the next year.

But Van Dijk’s deal is up at the end of this season, and he is now 33 years old, so it’s still not clear if the very important Dutch defender will soon be leaving the game.

Van Dijk is still very good, but Liverpool is smart to look for long-term replacements for a player who is generally seen as one of Jurgen Klopp’s best signings ever.

Now, according to Fichajes, Liverpool is ready to do everything they can to sign Guehi in 2025. Slot is “convinced” that the 19-times-capped England back has everything he needs to become the Reds’ long-term captain.

The report says that Slot wasn’t sure at first if Guehi had what it took to replace Van Dijk at Anfield. But Slot is said to be sure that Guehi is “the one” now that he has seen how his results were broken down and Hughes, the sporting director, gave him some high-level analytics on his skills.

It won’t be cheap to sign the Palace star, though. The Eagles turned down a bid from Newcastle worth up to £75m (€90m, $100.6m) for Guehi in the summer. In order to get the 24-year-old defender, the Reds will probably have to pay a club-record amount. The most they have ever paid for a player is £85 million (€102 million, $113.4 million), which they paid Benfica for Darwin Nunez.