Arne Slot swerves Marc Guehi Liverpool transfer question as £26m defender set for medical

Arne Slot has remained tight-lipped over the Liverpool's interest in Crystal Palace skipper Marc Guehi, despite confirming a deal with Parma for Giovanni Leoni. The Reds have agreed an initial £26m fee plus add-ons with the Serie A side to sign the young defender.

The 18-year-old has been given the green light to travel to Liverpool for a medical after striking a deal with Parma on Wednesday evening.

Liverpool managed to fend off competition from several top Italian clubs and Premier League rivals, with the youngster insistent on making the move to Anfield. Leoni is set to strengthen their centre-back options ahead of the new season, joining Slot's first team immediately for the campaign. Any talk of a loan departure has been firmly dismissed.

Following the sale of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen in a deal potentially worth up to £35m, Slot was left with only Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez as his senior centre-back options.

However, Van Dijk missed Liverpool's two friendly matches against Athletic Bilbao due to illness, while Gomez has been absent for most of pre-season with a minor Achilles problem. Meanwhile, speculation continues to swirl around Konate's future with his contract set to expire next summer.

While Liverpool are nearing the signing of Leoni, they also initiated discussions with Crystal Palace about a potential move for Guehi earlier this week.

However, Slot remained tight-lipped about Liverpool's pursuit of the latter when asked about the club's latest transfer activities ahead of their Premier League opener at home to AFC Bournemouth.

"(I can tell you) that the clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn't signed for us yet," Slot revealed about Leoni during his pre-match press conference. "The moment when he signs for us, I can go into more detail.

"And the other one (Guehi) is of course the answer you always get from me.

"No, (I cannot go into more detail) because he is not our player and unfortunately he was the captain of the team where we lost against last Sunday.

"No, if you want to have any talks about him, you should go to Palace, to (Oliver) Glasner and ask him his opinion about him."

In the meantime, Slot confirmed that Gomez could make a comeback to the matchday squad against Bournemouth after returning to training this week - but conceded he has a decision to make following the England international's disrupted pre-season schedule.

"Joe, I have to make a decision on that," he said. "I think he only trained twice now, missed quite a lot in pre-season.

"But if you look at our bench against Palace, I think there were three players who were 20 years or younger. There is a possibility that Joe is on the bench but I have to look at the answers and who we're going to take."