Maxence Lacroix has made a bold statement after completing his move from Crystal Palace to Chelsea, describing the club as the \u201cbest club in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
He arrives as the third addition of the Xabi Alonso era at Chelsea, following Marco Palestra and Morgan Rogers. Emmanuel Emegha, Geovany Quenda and Dastan Satpayev have also already completed pre-agreed moves.<\/p>\n
Rogers had previously called Chelsea the \u201cbiggest club in London\u201d when sealing his own move, but Lacroix went further in his assessment of the club he has now joined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the best move for me because it\u2019s the best club in the world,\u201d Lacroix told club media.<\/p>\n
He also explained that conversations with players already at the club helped shape his decision. \u201cI spoke with Malo [Gusto]. I spoke with Trev [Chalobah]. I spoke with Beno\u00eet [Badiashile]. It\u2019s easy for people to speak well about this club because it has a lot of big history and I\u2019m really proud to be a part of it now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke with the manager on the phone. We spoke about tactics, we spoke about how he sees the game. First of all, I was happy just to speak about football with him, and I saw that we have the same direction and desire for this club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I spoke with the gaffer, when I spoke also with the people I know from the national team who play for Chelsea, like Malo, they told me it was the best club I can go to.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo already I was saying: \u2018O.K., I don\u2019t need to think too much.\u2019 After talking to people I said to myself: \u2018This is the best step forward for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea had identified centre back as a key area after Levi Colwill\u2019s summer ACL injury last season, which led former manager Enzo Maresca to ask publicly for cover. That request was not met, and the situation contributed to the tensions that preceded his departure in January.<\/p>\n
Even with Colwill available again, Chelsea went into the summer intent on strengthening at the back and moved quickly for Lacroix. The 26-year-old spent four years in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg before becoming a leader in Palace\u2019s defence over the last two years.<\/p>\n
His profile fits Chelsea\u2019s push for Premier League-ready quality. The club are also closing in on the signings of Danny Welbeck, 35, and Jordan Henderson, 36, as part of a clear change in transfer approach.<\/p>\n
Lacroix is expected to have an important role under Alonso next season, especially with several current Chelsea centre backs available for transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lacroix has called Chelsea the \u201cbest club in the world\u201d after joining from Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[1836,1129],"class_list":["post-18131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-benoit-badiashile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}