{"id":22677,"date":"2026-07-29T18:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22677"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:39:06","slug":"chelsea-close-in-on-signing-of-danny-welbeck-as-xabi-alonso-prepares-to-allow-up-to-three-strikers-to-leave-the-club-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=22677","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea close in on signing of Danny Welbeck – as Xabi Alonso prepares to allow up to three strikers to leave the club this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By KIERAN GILL, MAIL SPORT REPORTER <\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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Chelsea are finalising a two-year deal for Danny Welbeck, with the Brighton & Hove Albion striker set to undergo a medical before potentially linking up with his new club in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Daily Mail Sport <\/span>revealed three days ago how Xabi Alonso\u2019s side had suddenly shown interest in Welbeck, who, at 35 years old, would bring significant experience into the Blues\u2019 squad. Jordan Henderson, 36 and at Brentford, is also a transfer target.<\/p>\n

Welbeck, who scored 13 Premier League goals last season, is in line to sign terms until 2028 at Stamford Bridge.\u00a0If all goes to plan, he will link up with his new team-mates on their pre-season in Hong Kong, before further stops in Malaysia and Indonesia. He had 12 months remaining on his contract at Brighton.<\/p>\n

Alonso and his squad are currently in Sydney, Australia for their pre-season tour but they will be moving on to Hong Kong this weekend after their next friendly versus Tottenham.<\/p>\n

Chelsea have tweaked their transfer approach this summer by targeting more \u2018ready-made\u2019 players who are older than those they currently have.<\/p>\n

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\"Danny <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Danny Welbeck is close to agreeing his move to Chelsea from Brighton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Liam <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Liam Delap is one of up to three strikers Chelsea may let move on this summer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alonso originally targeted the signing of Granit Xhaka, 33, but Sunderland refused to sell their captain. They also looked at bringing in John Stones as a 32-year-old free agent.<\/p>\n

Maxence Lacroix, 26 and from Crystal Palace, is close to being confirmed for \u00a352million. Morgan Rogers, the 24-year-old from Aston Villa, has also signed for \u00a3117m.<\/p>\n

The arrival of Welbeck should lead to other movements in the striker department at Chelsea. Alonso already has Liam Delap, Emmanuel Emegha, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu and Joao Pedro on the books. At least two of those five should be sold or loaned, and possibly three.<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro is considered untouchable and not for sale. He scored a nine-minute hat-trick in their 6-4 friendly victory over Western Sydney Wanderers. Delap struggled in that win, though he was surrounded mainly by academy products while on the pitch, whereas Joao Pedro was substituted on along with the A team.<\/p>\n

When asked about Welbeck after that friendly win, Alonso said: \u2018No comment.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n Chelsea close in on signing of Danny Welbeck – as Xabi Alonso prepares to allow up to three strikers to leave the club this summer<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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By KIERAN GILL, MAIL SPORT REPORTER Published: 07:07 BST, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 07:57…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22677","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\/22677","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=22677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}