{"id":19039,"date":"2026-07-20T03:01:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T03:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19039"},"modified":"2026-07-20T03:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T03:01:25","slug":"chelsea-enter-talks-to-sign-55m-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19039","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea enter talks to sign \u00a355m defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Chelsea news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">July 19, 2026 20:39 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Chelsea summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestMaxenceLacroix.jpg\" title=\"Maxence Lacroix news\" alt=\"Maxence Lacroix news\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Chelsea want Lacroix<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:18px; width:450px;\">\n<div style=\"display:inline; border:0px; padding-left:2px; padding-top:3px;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/images\/football_transfer_centre.png\" title=\"Football Transfer Centre\" alt=\"Football Transfer Centre\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea have entered negotiations with Crystal Palace for the potential transfer of defender <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Maxence Lacroix<\/span><\/span>  this summer.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size:16px; padding-top:10px\">\n<p>The Blues are eager to bolster their central defence and have earmarked Lacroix as the number one target for the transfer window.<\/p>\n<p>The club have already held talks with the player&#8217;s agent and have now opened talks with the Eagles to secure the Frenchman&#8217;s signature.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea would ideally prefer to land him for\u00a0\u00a340 million, but the Eagles are expected to demand at least\u00a0\u00a355 million for the centre-back.<\/p>\n<p>Talks are poised to continue over the next few days and the Blues remain optimistic of striking a suitable deal with the south London side.<\/p>\n<p>Lacroix&#8217;s arrival will most certainly coincide with more exits. <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Trevoh Chalobah<\/span><\/span>  is reportedly on his way to Serie A giants Como.<\/p>\n<p>There is also talk that young graduate <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Josh Acheampong<\/span><\/span>  could head for the exit door, having seen limited playing time since his breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p>Bayern Munich and Arsenal are keeping tabs on the youngster.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Chelsea news July 19, 2026 20:39 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19039","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\/19039","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=19039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}