Waiting for players on a free is fraught with danger, I believe the player can only sign a pre-contract with LFC (eg) from 1st Jan or say 6 months before his contract expires. That leaves a few months from the summer window closing to have someone snipe in (RM eg) or the greedy agent to line his pockets and steer "his" client elsewhere. If guehi could sign a legally binding document 2day that meant he could join us 1st June 2026 then that would be fine but he can't. Just get him now even if its a little more than we want to pay. Due to accounting etc FSG prob look at the timing of the payments to palace as more important than the overall cost.