Barcelona are yet to make an offer for Jules Koundé, despite claims they could make a last-minute effort to beat Chelsea to his signature.
That’s according to Marca, who say the defender is simply ‘waiting for the sale to become official’ in the coming days.
The newspaper reports that Koundé is currently with the Sevilla squad in Portugal, having been a late addition to a trip he looked likely to miss out on.
Marca have witnessed him at this camp, stating that he was the earliest riser of the group, working on his own before leaving ahead of his teammates’ arrival at the training camp.
While the interest from the Camp Nou is real, they didn’t want to pay the significant amount needed to get him.
While they have dallied, there as been a ‘direct attack’ from Chelsea, with whom they cannot compete financially despite activating the second lever in their deal to sell their TV rights.
Their interest in Koundé has been ‘more noise than reality’, and that has led Sevilla to ‘press Chelsea’ to close the deal.
The move to Stamford Bridge is being delayed because of minor differences between the two parties when it comes to ‘adjusting the variables’ and the ‘method of payment’. It’s a big deal for Sevilla, and they are trying to make it as profitable as possible.
All the players in Sevilla’s squad believe he will be wearing blue next season, and Koundé himself ‘knows that his destination is London’. All that remains is to make the deal official, with Marca hinting nobody is now expecting anything from Barcelona.
