Palace Take Disasi After Roma’s Chelsea Bargain Dies

Crystal Palace signed Axel Disasi on a season-long Chelsea loan on 26 August, after Roma’s talks over a €20 million deal went nowhere. The loan carries no option or obligation to buy, and Chelsea still hold him until June 2029.

French transfer contacts had Roma sounding out Chelsea and the player’s camp in July, with the Giallorossi pushing a loan plus an option. Palace finished the move instead, weeks after selling Maxence Lacroix to the same club for £52 million.

Palace Took the Defender Roma Could Not Buy

Chelsea confirmed that Disasi had joined Crystal Palace on loan for 2026/27. He is 28, a France international with 5 caps, and he had not played for Chelsea since a substitute appearance against Wolves on 20 January 2025.

Pierre Sage, Palace’s new manager, had already said he needed another centre-back after Lacroix left. A 2-0 opening defeat by Everton, then an anterior cruciate ligament injury to Chadi Riad, removed any remaining delay. Disasi became the experienced body Sage wanted for a season that also includes the Europa League.

I’m very happy. The club has been going in a very good direction, so I think it was the right place for me to keep going.

Axel Disasi, after the Palace loan was announced

He added that Selhurst Park is a hard ground to visit, and that he wanted to be on the other side of that fight. Palace chairman Steve Parish called him a defender of the right experience and calibre for the season. The club gave him shirt number 5.

He has already been started. Palace’s own account posted an appreciation image after his first games in red and blue, which is the whole point of the loan from his side of the table.

https://x.com/CPFC/status/2096595774742347867

Chelsea get a senior salary off the first-team ledger for a year and keep the next sale. Palace get a 1.91m centre-back who started almost every West Ham match he was fit for. Roma get none of that player, and had already spent August on other defenders.

The Sale Chelsea Wanted Never Arrived

The mismatch was the deal shape, not a late change of heart in Rome. Chelsea wanted a permanent transfer. Roma, according to those July contacts, wanted a loan with an option to buy at the end of the season. Palace offered a straight loan with no path to keep him unless everyone comes back to the table in 2027.

HOW THE THREE CLUBS LINED UP

• Chelsea: A sale, with €20 million the figure attached to Roma’s enquiry, on a contract that still had until June 2029 to run.
• Roma: A loan plus option, after a summer in which they had already been outbid on other names.
• Palace: A season loan, no option, no obligation, agreed once Sage’s defence looked thin.

Xabi Alonso did not take Disasi on the pre-season tour to Australia and Hong Kong. Marco Palestra, a new signing, was given the number 2 shirt Disasi had worn. AC Milan had also been in the conversation, and a Milan move had stalled in January before the West Ham switch. By late August the only club that actually registered him was Palace.

He had no interest in the Championship after West Ham went down, which closed a permanent return to the London Stadium. That left Italy as the reset and the Premier League as the comfort zone. Palace, still in the top flight and in Europe, sat in both columns without writing a transfer cheque.

How Lacroix’s Exit Recycled Disasi to Selhurst

Chelsea and Palace had already done the expensive part of this swap. On 30 July, Chelsea signed Lacroix, 26, from Palace for £52 million on a contract to 2032. Palace had bought him from Wolfsburg in 2024 for an initial £15.5 million. The sale was liquidity for UEFA squad-cost rules and for new signings after a Conference League win that also tightened the books.

They then went looking for two centre-backs: one to cover Lacroix, one younger. Chrislain Matsima of Augsburg was the preferred long-term replacement and did not arrive. Disasi was the ready-made stopgap, and the loan closed after that Everton defeat.

THE CHELSEA-PALACE DEFENDER SWAP

Palace also brought in Honest Ahanor, an 18-year-old who will join Chelsea from Atalanta in 2027, on a loan written with Atalanta so it did not count as a second Chelsea loanee. Ben Chilwell arrived on a free. The back line at Selhurst now carries a Stamford Bridge aftertaste that Chelsea fans have already started joking about as a full package.

The missing option to buy is the part that will follow both clubs into next summer. A loan with no clause means Palace cannot convert a decent season into a set fee, and Chelsea cannot claim they moved the asset. They parked it in south London after taking £52 million the other way.

A Permanent Signing and a Marseille Loan Instead

Roma did not wait. On 1 August the club announced Konstantinos Koulierakis, 22, on a permanent move from Wolfsburg. He has 22 Greece caps and took shirt 33 on the day he signed. On 30 August, Leonardo Balerdi, 27, arrived from Marseille on a loan with an option to buy. He has 11 Argentina caps, more than 200 European appearances, and the No.26 shirt.

Gian Piero Gasperini, speaking after those two captains landed alongside Marten de Roon, put Balerdi in the best moment of his career and said the job was to give the defence more substance for a hard calendar. He wanted depth more than a longer starting XI, with Champions League nights stacked on Serie A.

We’ve acquired two captains. Balerdi is in his prime.

Gian Piero Gasperini, Roma head coach

ROMA’S CENTRE-BACK GROUP FOR EUROPE

• Evan Ndicka: The established left-sided starter in the back three.
• Gianluca Mancini: The long-serving right-sided option and club regular.
• Mario Hermoso: The other senior starter Gasperini already trusted.
• Konstantinos Koulierakis: The young permanent addition, listed for the Fenerbahce trip.
• Leonardo Balerdi: The Marseille captain on loan, also in that Champions League squad.

That list is why the Disasi file could die without leaving a hole in the matchday squad. A tactical snag in Gasperini’s system was always sitting under the €20 million pitch: Disasi can be late when a high line is broken in behind, and he is not sharp when isolated out wide. Roma’s new bodies are built for a back three that already had Ndicka, Mancini and Hermoso. Disasi would have been a fourth senior, not a scheme change.

On His Third Loan With a Contract to 2029

Chelsea six-year contract at Stamford Bridge still has until June 2029 to run. The fee in August 2023 was £38.5 million (€45 million) from Monaco. He scored on his debut in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on 13 August 2023, made 44 appearances in that first season, then slid out of the side.

DISASI’S PATH OUT OF STAMFORD BRIDGE

1. 4 August 2023: Signs for Chelsea from Monaco on a six-year deal for £38.5 million.
2. 20 January 2025: Last Chelsea appearance, as a substitute in a 3-1 win over Wolves.
3. February 2025: Joins Aston Villa on loan and makes 10 appearances in all competitions.
4. 2 February 2026: Joins West Ham on loan for a £1.7 million fee after a Milan move stalls.
5. 11 June 2026: Chelsea and the player agree that a permanent exit suits both.
6. 26 August 2026: Joins Palace on a season loan with no option or obligation to buy.

Chelsea’s own summer note on the window put loans at the centre of how they cut the squad, grouping Disasi with the Garnacho loan that left Stamford Bridge in the same clear-out. The club can point to a British-record sale elsewhere. It cannot point to a Disasi fee. He has 61 Chelsea appearances and 5 goals, and he started the first eight matches of the 2024/25 Conference League run before the Villa loan.

Three loans in 18 months, on a contract that still has three summers attached, is the bill for a 2023 signing who never became a long-term Alonso piece. Palace get the football. Chelsea keep the registration.

Why the West Ham Tape Still Plays at Palace

The Roma pitch was built on a half-season at West Ham, not on his Chelsea years. He arrived on 2 February on a West Ham loan until the season ended, started 16 of 17 matches in all competitions, and finished with 17 appearances and 1,510 minutes. Fourteen of those games were Premier League starts. West Ham still went down on the final day.

Opta’s sample from that spell is why a €20 million ticket looked sane in July. He completed 68.75% of his tackles, the best rate in the West Ham squad behind Adama Traore’s 100%. He made 74 ground clearances and 40 headed clearances. He won 48 of 77 ground duels (62.34%) and 25 of 42 aerial duels, and he took the ball back 43 times, more than some teammates who played twice as long.

WEST HAM LOAN, OPTA SAMPLE

• Minutes: 1,510 across 17 appearances, 14 of them Premier League starts.
• Duels: 48 of 77 on the ground won, 25 of 42 in the air.
• Passing: 86.06% completed, with the size to carry it out of the back.
• Warning: Slow to turn when balls go over a high line or when he is isolated wide.

Sage does not play Gasperini’s press. Palace needed a leader after selling Lacroix, and Disasi’s West Ham tape is a low-block, duel-heavy reel, which is a kinder watch for Selhurst than for Trigoria. That is the split the summer actually produced. Roma kept the scheme and bought other bodies. Palace kept the league and borrowed the player Chelsea could not sell.

He will be a Chelsea player again on 1 July 2027 unless someone writes a new cheque. The €20 million Roma bargain never had a contract attached. The loan that did is already on the pitch, and the next argument is whether Palace ever get to buy the man they only rented.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Roma Sign Axel Disasi From Chelsea?

No. Roma held talks in July and wanted a loan with an option to buy, but he registered with Crystal Palace on 26 August. AC Milan had already come close in January 2026, then stepped back, which is when West Ham completed their mid-season loan instead.

Does Crystal Palace Have an Option to Buy Disasi?

No. The 2026/27 loan has neither an option nor an obligation, so Palace cannot convert a good season into a fixed fee. Any permanent stay would need a new negotiation in 2027, with Chelsea still holding the registration.

When Does Axel Disasi’s Chelsea Contract Expire?

June 2029. He signed that six-year deal when he left Monaco on 4 August 2023, which is why Chelsea could wait on a sale and still use a pure loan as a stopgap without losing control of the next fee.

Who Did Roma Sign at Centre-Back Instead?

Konstantinos Koulierakis, 22, joined from Wolfsburg on 1 August with 22 Greece caps, and Leonardo Balerdi, 27, joined from Marseille on 30 August with 11 Argentina caps and more than 200 European games. Both were in the Champions League squad named for Fenerbahce on 10 September.