Chelsea have agreed a deal with Crystal Palace to sign Maxence Lacroix. The 26-year-old defender has given permission to finalise the transfer. Palace were seeking around £55m in negotiations given the fee Tottenham paid for Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton.

Sky Sports News understands Chelsea have given Palace the chance to discuss signing one of their defenders available for transfer during talks. There has been interest from other clubs in Axel Disasi, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile. Palace and Chelsea have a good relationship and have done deals for players such as Chalobah and Ben Chilwell in the past.

The Eagles have been concentrating on Augsburg centre-back Chrislain Matsima but are now prepared to walk away from the deal, frustrated with negotiation speed. Palace have been interested in several centre-backs since Marc Guehi was sold to Manchester City, including Charlie Cresswell, Ruben Kluivert and Chibuke Nwaiwu.

Sky Sports' Adam Bate notes Chelsea have not paid a transfer fee for a player aged 26 or over since 2022 with Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, but Lacroix is worth relaxing the policy for. Lacroix ranks among the top five fastest centre-backs in the Premier League and is the only player to have faced 50+ one-on-one situations in two seasons and won the ball more often than not. At 6'4", he ranks third for clearances and seventh for aerial duels won.