{"id":9032,"date":"2026-05-16T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9032"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:00:42","slug":"chelsea-urged-to-sign-man-city-star-on-free-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9032","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea urged to sign Man City star on free transfer"},"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 14, 2026 20:23 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\/largestJohn_Stones_2021.jpg\" title=\"Chelsea urged to sign Man City star on free transfer\" alt=\"Chelsea urged to sign Man City star on free transfer\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Chelsea urged to land Stones<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea have been urged to sign Manchester City defender <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">John Stones<\/span><\/span>  on a free transfer by former Premier League star <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Joleon Lescott<\/span><\/span>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>Stones will formally leave the Cityzens when his contract expires this summer and he has been linked with a possible reunion with Everton.<\/p>\n<p>However, several other Premier League clubs are monitoring him too and Lescott feels the Blues should bring him in for the experience.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I would sign him for Chelsea. He\u2019s a top professional, top player, he\u2019d have the respect of the group because of what he\u2019s done, he\u2019s achieved more than what they\u2019ve achieved as a group.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea left-back <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Marc Cucurella<\/span><\/span>  recently talked about the lack of experienced signings, which have contributed to the club&#8217;s downfall.<\/p>\n<p>There has been a particular focus on players aged 23 or below, and things have gone particularly pear-shaped for the Blues this campaign.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether the west London giants change their policy and focus on landing marquee signings, who can make a difference.<\/p>\n<p>They have been linked with the likes of <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Rafael Leao<\/span><\/span>  and <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Morten Hjulmand<\/span><\/span>but the final decision will be made by the new manager at the helm.<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 14, 2026 20:23 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9032","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\/9032","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=9032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}