Chelsea duo Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta ‘hope to be’ Barcelona players as early as next week after striking deals with the Catalan giants.
That’s according to Sport, who say the duo have had agreements in place to move to the Camp Nou for many weeks but are waiting for the Blaugrana to sort out their financial problems.
The newspaper reports that Barcelona will try to close deals for the pair next week so they can be a part of their tour of the United States.
Doing so will not be easy because Chelsea have put a €13m valuation on either player, but those are figures they are ‘willing to negotiate’.
The two players will be dealt with separately as they are two different situations. Alonso has been given permission to depart, and he could have already signed for another team as he has other offers, but he wants to play for Barcelona and is waiting.
The La Liga side want to take advantage of that and believe he can be signed for a ‘significantly lower’ figure than €13m. They envisage zero problems achieving this as Chelsea already have a replacement in mind.
Signing Azpilicueta is ‘somewhat more complex’ because Chelsea are arguing that they’ve activated a one-year extension in his contract.
The defender, though, wants to leave and has already asked the Blues’ new owners to let him leave, but Thomas Tuchel is keen to keep him and will only sanction a departure if the €13m asking price is met.
It’s difficult for them to lower that figure as they consider the veteran an asset for the first team, but Azpilicueta has spoken to Tuchel and is willing to put in a transfer request to make the move happen.
He wanted to leave on a free but now aspires to depart for a ‘small financial compensation’, certainly lower than the €13m price Chelsea want.
