The centre of defence remains a key position for Crystal Palace with reinforcements needed.
Selling Joachim Andersen to Fulham meant Crystal Palace had to sign one central defender, but since then Chadi Riad has picked up a potentially serious injury.
This leaves the Eagles light in the position and with Marc Guehi’s future still not sorted, there should be a desperation to sign a centre-back.
Crystal Palace have plenty of options, but one now looks very unlikely.
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Chelsea make Tomas Araujo bid
With little over 24 hours left in the transfer window, Crystal Palace look set to sign Maxence Lacroix from Wolfsburg.
However, a second central defensive addition would be ideal for the Eagles, but one player it won’t be is Tomas Araujo.
Crystal Palace saw a bid rejected for Araujo last week and since then, the Benfica manager has made a statement insisting that he will not be sold.
However, Fabrizio Romano has now reported that Chelsea have Araujo on their shortlist. Meanwhile, PSG are also keen on the Portuguese defender.
Furthering this, it had also been reported by Mais Futebol that Chelsea had lodged a €40m (£33.6m) bid to sign Araujo from Benfica.
This is despite what Romano said about there not yet being a bid.
Crystal Palace have several centre-back options
So while Araujo may not be a likely arrival this summer, there are some very interesting defenders that Crystal Palace could still move for.
That being said, there is really only one who stands out considering the fact his club want him out, and that is Trevoh Chalobah.
Chelsea are keen to sell, and in the event of a Guehi sale, the club will have tens of millions to spend on a replacement, with a Chalobah purchase likely to trigger a domino effect which could see Araujo join Chelsea.
We will not have to wait long to find out what is going to happen now though. Ideally, Guehi will remain.
