Chelsea believe they have won the race to sign Jules Kounde as Barcelona concede defeat in the race to sign the Sevilla defender, according to reports.
It’s been an intense transfer saga which looked as though Chelsea would smoothly land their long-term target after missing out on the France international last summer.
Thomas Tuchel has been looking to rebuild and improve his defence, which has already seen Kalidou Koulibaly signed from Napoli.
But Kounde has been wanted, however Barcelona have provided the competition for the 23-year-old. Chelsea had submitted a £55 million offer to Sevilla for the centre-back and talks had been advanced, but Barcelona were trying to convince the player to snub a switch to Stamford Bridge.
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Barcelona hadn’t yet submitted an official offer and only submitted their second economic lever on Thursday, which looked to be the indicator over whether or not an offer would be lodged.
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Nothing has been sent to Sevilla, with Kounde currently out in Lagos, Portugal after U-turning on his initial decision not to go with the rest of the squad for their pre-season trip.
Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, was recorded by a fan who asked if Kounde was making the switch to the Camp Nou on Thursday evening.
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He replied: “No, he will sign for Chelsea,” although claims out of Spain insisted his comments were ironic.
Now it appears that Chelsea have won the race. As reported by Relevo, Barcelona sources have ‘practically given up’ on the pursuit of Kounde.
They believe that he will sign for Chelsea in the next few hours, with Barcelona never making a ‘firm proposal’ to Sevilla.
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Meanwhile, Ben Jacobs adds that Chelsea now believe they’ve won the race for the Frenchman, stating that Barcelona still haven’t made a formal bid and accept they can’t match the Blues' offer.
Sevilla and Chelsea have an agreement, with just 'minor points' now being finalised, which José Manuel García backs up and suggests work is being done to ‘close the operation’.
Kounde wants and is waiting to travel to London to, finally, complete his move, as Barcelona get left out of the equation.
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Tuchel confirmed earlier this week that more signings were expected at Stamford Bridge this summer, and Kounde is looking increasingly likely to become the third arrival of the summer.
"I have a figure,” the Chelsea head coach admitted on the amount of signings required this summer.
“I think we need a couple more players to improve the squad.
"We are third last season. There was a gap. In general, if you want to keep your position or fight, you need to improve."
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He added: “We even lost players. It is common sense we need to bring new quality to the team to maintain our level, not even speaking about improving our level."
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Jules Kounde, Chelsea, Sevilla, Chelsea Transfer News & Rumours, Barcelona
