Newcastle United are the latest club to be dragged into the mix to sign Barcelona’s Jules Koundé in the summer.
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old took to Twitter to insist he hasn’t asked to leave the Camp Nou but that hasn’t stopped him from getting linked to the Magpies and others.
Koundé wasn’t used in his preferred position as a centre-back as Xavi Hernández has mainly deployed him on the right side of the defence this season. He wants to operate in the middle of the defence next season, and AS state this could be a problem for the La Liga side because the France international wasn’t better than Ronald Araújo or Andreas Christensen when deployed in his favourite position.
Xavi isn’t willing to give Koundé an assurance that he’ll start him as a centre-back next season. If the defender isn’t ready to play on the right, his ‘future becomes unknown’.
In the past few days, Newcastle and other clubs’ interest have emerged. In fact, Eddie Howe’s side ‘have asked’ about the former Sevilla man.
For now, what Xavi doesn’t want is the pressure from the players and if he were to ask Koundé to play as a right-back, then the Frenchman must play there.
Should his situation start to be an issue for Barca, they could try to sell him and invest the money to sign a new right-back.
AS state no one at Barca would see his sale to be ‘as dramatic’ in the summer, which is likely to give hope to Newcastle and any other of his suitors.
