Kounde to Chelsea Is a Done Deal as Chelsea beat off competition from Barcelona to win race for Jules Kounde

Jules Kounde is set to become Chelsea’s third summer signing in a deal that could allow captain Cesar Azpilicueta to join Barcelona.

Chelsea look to have beaten off competition from
Barca for Kounde. They have agreed to pay Sevilla
in the region of £55 million and have offered the
defender a five-year contract.

Having signed Raheem Sterling in a deal worth
£50m and Kalidou Koulibaly for £34m, Chelsea’s
new owners have now already committed £139m
to new signings since taking over the club with
more deals to follow.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta appeared to
concede defeat in the race to sign Kounde by
telling a supporter in Las Vegas that the 23-year-
old will move to Chelsea.

The signing of Kounde will bring to an end a year-
long pursuit of the player for Chelsea, who almost
signed him last summer before Sevilla moved the
goalposts on the transfer fee.

Jules Kounde is set to sign for Chelsea in a deal that could allow captain Azpilicueta to join Barcelona. Chelsea look to have beaten off competition from Barca after they agreed to pay Sevilla in the region of £55m and offered the defender a 5-year contract.

Kounde had appeared to have slipped down the pecking order of Chelsea targets this year until Matthijs de Ligt preferred a move to Bayern Munich and Nathan Ake decided to stay at
Manchester City.

The arrival of Kounde will further strengthen the
defensive options of head coach Thomas Tuchel,
who has already signed Koulibaly from Napoli this
summer.

Koulibaly is in line to make his first Chelsea
appearance in the club’s final game of their US tour against Arsenal in Orlando in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Kounde can play on the right of a back three or at
right wing-back, which will give Tuchel the option
of also swapping Reece James between those two
positions.

Tuchel is still ideally hoping to sign a third
defender this summer, with Paris St-Germain’s
Presnel Kimpembe a target, and Kounde’s move
could give Azpilicueta the green light to return to
Spain with Barcelona.