{"id":21052,"date":"2026-07-24T19:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T19:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21052"},"modified":"2026-07-24T19:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T19:57:32","slug":"chelsea-sanction-medical-for-crystal-palace-defender-complete-52m-move-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21052","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Sanction Medical For Crystal Palace Defender, Complete \u00a352m Move: Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \">\n                <\/aside>\n<p>            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s recruitment of defensive players this window has been thorough, and it\u2019s led to an agreement for Maxence Lacroix, a 26-year-old centre-back who has been the backbone of Crystal Palace\u2019s defence for the last two seasons. The France international is expected to have his medical in London before signing a deal until June 2032, and the Blues will pay a fee of around \u00a352 million.<\/p>\n<p>Palace have accepted an official bid after the broad terms were agreed last night. Chelsea peripheral defender Axel Disasi will be excluded from the deal, having previously been offered a season-long loan by Selhurst Park. Also, Disasi wasn\u2019t overly enthusiastic about the transfer and was looking at other options.<\/p>\n<p>Lacroix has risen in stature since his arrival from Wolfsburg in 2024 for a fee of around \u20ac18 million, and the Eagles have reaped a nice windfall. The towering 190cm defender made 55 appearances in all competitions last season, scoring three goals and three assists as Palace secured the Conference League and Community Shield. His excellent form saw him make France\u2019s 2026 World Cup squad, where he featured three times as Les Bleus finished fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Palace have the unenviable task of replacing another defensive cornerstone in successive windows, having lost Marc Guehi to Manchester City last January. Augsburg\u2019s Chrislain Matsima has been identified as the main target by Pierre Sage\u2019s recruitment department, with Chibuike Nwaiwu of Trabzonspor, Ruben Kluivert of Lyon and Charlie Cresswell of Toulouse also considered as options.<\/p>\n<h2>Xabi Alonso has overseen a complete changing of the guard in Chelsea\u2019s defensive pecking order<\/h2>\n<p>Xabi Alonso formally took the reins at Stamford Bridge on July 1 after penning a four-year deal. He inherited a squad depleted by a trophy-less campaign that culminated in a demoralising tenth-place finish. The Spaniard had a clear mandate from the outset: a probing wide attacker, a controlling midfielder, and a commanding central defender.<\/p>\n<p>So Chelsea have behaved with the ambition of any club, bringing in Geovany Quenda, Denner, Dastan Satpaev, Emmanuel Emegha and Marco Palestra, before sanctioning a \u00a3117m outlay on Morgan Rogers. Lacroix, who will join imminently, is the authoritative, physically robust presence that Alonso\u2019s anticipated back five requires.<\/p>\n<p>This purchase will therefore inevitably lead to some uncomfortable conversations about Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah and Mamadou Sarr. Disasi looks the most at risk, with the \u00a338.8m Monaco signing gradually marginalised since 2024 and spending the second half of last season on loan at West Ham United.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \">\n                <\/aside>\n<p>            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea\u2019s recruitment of defensive players this window has been thorough, and it\u2019s led to an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21052","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\/21052","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=21052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}