Chelsea have intensified their pursuit of Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix after opening formal talks with the South London membership over a possible summer time switch. Palace have positioned a minimal valuation of £55 million on the 26-year-old French centre-back, utilizing Tottenham’s current signing of Jan Paul van Hecke because the benchmark for his or her asking value.
The event comes lower than 48 hours after Softfootball reported that Arsenal had entered the race for Lacroix, with the Gunners exploring the potential of hijacking Chelsea’s long-standing curiosity within the defender. Nonetheless, Chelsea stay on the entrance of the queue and have now taken the primary formal steps towards securing his signature.
Chelsea view Lacroix as a key goal as Xabi Alonso appears to be like to strengthen his defensive choices forward of the brand new season. The membership believes the Frenchman possesses the qualities wanted to thrive in Alonso’s tactical system and add larger stability to the again line.
With Arsenal nonetheless monitoring the state of affairs, the race for the extremely rated defender is ready to accentuate as Chelsea push to finish one other main addition through the summer time switch window.
