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Marc Guehi scored his first goal for Manchester City on Sunday afternoon as the former Chelsea defender celebrated in front of the away supporters at Stamford Bridge
Former Chelsea defender Marc Guehi has praised his old club for the role they had in building his career.
The 25-year-old centre-back signed for Manchester City in the January transfer window and scored his first goal for Pep Guardiola's team in the 3-0 win against the Blues on Sunday. It was something of a full circle moment for Guehi, who came through the academy ranks at Cobham before joining Crystal Palace for £18million in July 2021.
The England international, who only ever appeared twice for Chelsea's senior side before leaving the club on a permanent basis, is full of appreciation for the role those at Cobham had in helping his development. Asked how it felt to score against his former club after the win at Stamford Bridge, Guehi said: "It's not that important. Not personally. It's nice to score. My main job is to defend, but it's nice to help the team differently as well.
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"If anything, I'm more grateful [about how things worked out at Chelsea], it's a bit weird, I came from Chelsea and the academy, and I wouldn't be here without the coaches in the academy, the staff, the players I played with, so weirdly I'm really grateful to them for getting me to this point."
Guehi has clearly moved on from Chelsea and the "hurt" he suffered after leaving the club. Just over 12 months after he moved on from the Blues, the defender said this to Sky Sports: "It hurt a lot just because I was there for such a long time.
"It's such a different feeling leaving there and not going back to where you've been for so long. But in order to grow, sometimes you have to take the hard choice and take the hard path sometimes."
Guehi came through the ranks at Chelsea's famous academy and was in the same age group as the likes of Reece James, Conor Gallagher, Rhian Brewster and others. Former Blues winger Joe Cole believes his old club made a big mistake in letting Guehi leave almost five years ago.
Cole, speaking on The Dressing Room Podcast, said: "For me, the big moment in the game from a Chelsea perspective, and from a Man City perspective, was when Marc Guehi scored the goal. 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 continued: "I'm looking at him and 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, whose 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."
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