Crystal Palace eye Wolfsburg defender with Marc Guehi’s future uncertain

Crystal Palace are set to join the race for Maxence Lacroix this summer as European clubs look closely at the Wolfsburg centre-back.

Lacroix played for Palace manager Oliver Glasner when they were at the Volkswagen Arena in 2020/21 and they qualified for the Champions League together.

The French defender is expected to come into the thinking at Selhurst Park when they look at centre-backs, with Marc Guehi attracting interest from other Premier League clubs this summer.

Lacroix is highly rated by Glasner, who he signed from Sochaux in Ligue 2, with the 24-year-old establishing himself as a Bundesliga regular and is now in his fourth season with Wolfsburg. Glasner is also believed to be an admirer of Moussa Niakhaté at Nottingham Forest from his time in Germany.

Glasner left after reaching the Champions League and then won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt. At Palace, he has recorded three straight wins in his last games, with victories over Liverpool, West Ham and Newcastle.

AC Milan have also kept tabs on Lacroix this season, with the player having one full season left on his contract with Wolfsburg.

It’s a familly affair

The Football Association’s recently-published transactions list has highlighted the number of player family members involved in transfer deals.

From the England squad that faced Brazil and Belgium, there were 11 players who had one of their relatives listed on the paperwork of a 2023/24 deal or known to have had family representation.

But Fifa wants the intermediary industry to be regulated and, if successful, would require all those involved in deals to be licensed.

Bournemouth ponder Mitchell

Former Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell is on the radar of Bournemouth’s owners for a role across their clubs.

Mitchell, 42, left Monaco earlier in the season and is expected to be in the summer shake-up of sporting directors being targeted for jobs.

Bournemouth’s Black Knight Football Club owners have also invested in Hibernian in Scotland and French club Lorient and Mitchell is admired after his work at Tottenham and Red Bull where he oversaw global recruitment.

Richard Hughes, now at Liverpool, left the Vitality Stadium as technical director earlier this season. Simon Francis has now been installed in that role.