{"id":1344,"date":"2026-04-27T13:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:26:33","slug":"chelsea-told-to-sign-47-5m-man-city-star-on-a-free-transfer-this-summer-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea told to sign \u00a347.5m Man City star on a free transfer this summer | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1221683467_c995d1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28101200\" alt=\"Chelsea and Manchester City Club Crests\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Chelsea will dip back into the transfer market this summer (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chelsea have been urged to consider signing Manchester City\u2019s John Stones on a free transfer this summer to add some much-needed experience to their defence.<\/p>\n<p>Stones has been a stalwart for City throughout Pep Guardiola\u2019s tenure since joining from Everton for \u00a347.5million in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>But the Englishman has found minutes hard to come by this season, and is yet to start a Premier League match since the turn of the year as he continues to struggle with injuries.<\/p>\n<p>With his contract up at the end of the season, Stones looks likely to depart City after ten seasons at the club.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea will almost certainly be in the market for at least one central defender this summer, with the club\u2019s defensive deficiencies in recent weeks one of the many reasons behind their disastrous collapse in form \u2013 which ultimately ended up costing Liam Rosenior his job.<\/p>\n<p>And former Chelsea centre-back William Gallas believes the Blues should be one of the clubs lining up to sign the City star to bolster their defensive options.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2265316498.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27841615\" alt=\"Newcastle United v Manchester City - Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>John Stones could leave Manchester City on a free this summer (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018What does John Stones bring to Chelsea? Leadership experience and composure,\u2019 Gallas told BOYLE Sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is calm. He can bring you everything. He looks like he can be the right guy to be the leader of the defence line at centre-back. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think Stones can be a good idea.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Gallas, though, urged his former club not to consider a move for Tottenham captain Cristian Romero, suggesting the Argentine defender too often puts his team \u2018in trouble\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury sustained in the defeat to Sunderland on April 12, but still hopes to make Argentina\u2019s squad for this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>A return to fitness could see Chelsea raid their London rivals for Romero, but Gallas has urged caution over any potential switch across the capital.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1252930740.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27841651\" alt=\"Newcastle United v Arsenal FC - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>William Gallas believes Chelsea would benefit from signing Stones (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Christian Romero is a winner but he could not be the new Thiago Silva at Chelsea,\u2019 Gallas added.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018As a player and a captain, Christian Romero has a different style. What you need is one experienced player who can control every team and when you play alongside Romero I think a player might feel less secure, especially when you are young. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018You need players who won\u2019t take a red card for a stupid foul. For me, Romero has to improve in this part because he puts his teams in trouble.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Maybe Chelsea need to look for centre-backs who can bring you all these things to be calm and have that security to be a good captain at the back.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"\/><br \/>\n<strong>Facebook, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: \u2018Unique talent\u2019 \u2013 Man Utd\u2019s \u00a352m transfer target backed to become \u2018the new Frenkie de Jong\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Chelsea or Man City? Alan Pardew makes FA Cup final prediction<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Declan Rice names the \u00a360million Arsenal star who will be \u2018massive\u2019 in the run-in<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea will dip back into the transfer market this summer (Picture: Getty) Chelsea have been&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1344","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\/1344","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=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}