{"id":19394,"date":"2026-07-20T23:24:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19394"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:24:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:24:59","slug":"chelsea-in-active-talks-to-sign-french-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19394","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea in active talks to sign French star"},"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 20, 2026 19:29 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=\"Chelsea in active talks to sign French star \" alt=\"Chelsea in active talks to sign French star \" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Lacroix to the Blues soon<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea are in active talks with Crystal Palace over the potential transfer of defender <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Maxence Lacroix<\/span><\/span>according to journalist <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Fabrizio Romano<\/span><\/span>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The west London giants are determined to strengthen their central defence this summer, and manager <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Xabi Alonso<\/span><\/span>  prefers someone with Premier League experience.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues&#8217; hierarchy have earmarked Lacroix as the prime target, and they are now engaged in negotiations with Palace to try and find a suitable agreement for the player.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman has already given the green light for the transfer, and Chelsea want to secure an early agreement to avoid a bidding war.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal were also credited with an interest in the Conference League winner last month, but they have turned to other possible targets.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea have yet to make a formal bid on the table for Lacroix, but Palace are said to be eyeing at least\u00a0\u00a355m to part ways with the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues are showing big ambition in the transfer market despite the lack of European football. They have just spent\u00a0\u00a3117m to land <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Morgan Rogers<\/span><\/span>.<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 20, 2026 19:29 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-19394","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\/19394","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=19394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19394\/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=19394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}