{"id":10014,"date":"2026-05-18T09:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10014"},"modified":"2026-05-18T09:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:27:20","slug":"chelsea-eyeing-50m-centre-back-as-first-xabi-alonso-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10014","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea eyeing \u00a350m centre-back as first Xabi Alonso signing"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Defence might be a bigger area of focus for Xabi Alonso than most people realise. When you think about the Spanish midfielder, you remember the elegant maestro who had controlled the middle of the park for Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Spain. He did so quite successfully as well, winning major trophies at both club and international level, including the Champions League and World Cup.<\/p>\n

So, you might imagine someone who is very focused on that possession-based style of football. But then, Alonso\u2019s teams are defensively very solid as well.<\/p>\n

Just look at his Bayer Leverkusen side. They conceded just 24 goals in their Invincible Bundesliga-winning campaign. Do not forget, they were in the relegation zone the previous season, when Alonso had taken over. So, that was a complete transformation, which is what this Chelsea team might need able how poor they have been defensively throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n

According to TEAMtalk, Maxence Lacroix is a player under consideration at Chelsea as the club evaluate defensive options ahead of Alonso\u2019s arrival. The Crystal Palace centre-back is appreciated for his pace, physicality and ability to operate in high defensive systems.<\/p>\n

Chelsea eyeing Maxence Lacroix of Crystal Palace<\/h2>\n

A lot of Chelsea fans had wanted the club to sign Marc Guehi in the summer and look at how well he is doing at Manchester City. Now, it looks like they are in the race for his former teammate.<\/p>\n

Lacroix is someone who could be the perfect fit for Chelsea at this point in time, at least from the point of experience and proven quality. He played four seasons in the Bundesliga, which means Alonso should know him well already.<\/p>\n

Also, he has spent the last two seasons in the Premier League. The Frenchman is one of the fastest centre-backs in the English top flight. And considering it might take around \u00a350 million to sign him, it is a move worth considering.<\/p>\n

Would Lacroix be an immediate starter?<\/h2>\n

What Chelsea right now are players who will walk straight into the starting XI. And it feels like Lacroix is in that bracket.<\/p>\n

He has made a couple of appearances for the France national team this year. We know Chelsea have not had good luck when it comes to French centre-backs. Wesley Fofana does not look like the same player since his multiple long-term injuries. Axel Disasi never quite fit after Mauricio Pochettino left. And Benoit Badiashile has struggled with both form and fitness for more than three years.<\/p>\n

That streak could end with someone like Lacroix, especially if Alonso is planning to play three at the back. Now, it remains to be seen if Chelsea do make their move or not. They have been linked with a few other Premier League-proven centre-backs recently as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Sourav<\/div>\n

Sourav Mahanty has covered teams like Chelsea, Celtic, Real Madrid, Manchester United, PSG and more over a career that has now lasted a decade.
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\nHis work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Athlon Sports, SB Nation, FanSided, The Sportster and aggregated through Bleacher Report and NewsNow.
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\nOutside of football, he is also interested in basketball, cricket and professional wrestling.<\/p>\n

View all articles \u2192<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defence might be a bigger area of focus for Xabi Alonso than most people realise….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}