{"id":7779,"date":"2026-05-13T07:14:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7779"},"modified":"2026-05-13T07:14:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T07:14:40","slug":"chelsea-planning-move-for-marquee-centre-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=7779","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea planning move for marquee centre-back"},"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\">May 12, 2026 20:24 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\/largestXabi_2025.jpeg\" title=\"Chelsea planning move for marquee centre-back\" alt=\"Chelsea planning move for marquee centre-back\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Chelsea want marquee centre-back<\/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 are planning an approach for a marquee centre-back during the summer transfer window, according to The Daily Mail.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The Blues have had a horrendous Premier League campaign and they are presently ninth in the standings with 49 points on the board.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, they could end the season on a high note. A victory in the FA Cup final against Manchester City guarantees Europa League football.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the club are working hard to land a new head coach at the helm and <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Xabi Alonso<\/span><\/span>  has been identified as the number one target for them.<\/p>\n<p>It is added that the Blues are already planning for future signings, and a marquee centre-back is among the top priorities for the London giants.<\/p>\n<p>There are no standout targets at the moment, and the club plans to discuss with the next head coach before pursuing a big-money acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>A number of central defenders, including <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Tosin Adarabioyo<\/span><\/span>, <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Benoit Badiashile<\/span><\/span>  and <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Axel Disasi<\/span><\/span>could leave the Blues this summer.<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 May 12, 2026 20:24 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7779","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\/7779","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=7779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}