Chelsea faced disappointment in their summer pursuit of Jules Kounde after Sevilla changed the terms of the deal at the eleventh hour. However, the Blues are likely to return for the player in January, reports ESPN.
The Blues were reportedly extremely interested in signing the Frenchman and moved Kurt Zouma onto West Ham United to make space for him in the team before a late change of mind from Sevilla left them facing failure.
Latest reports claim that Chelsea are expected to revive their interest in the central defender, albeit their interest is conditional on the La Liga side lowering the asking price to 50 million euros.
Kounde is reported to have a release clause of 80 million euros in his current contract, and Chelsea’s attempts to take him away for a lower fee were unacceptable to Sevilla – this much was stated by sporting director Monchi himself.
“There was a club that he liked, which was Chelsea. The first and only formal offer did not satisfy our desires and was conditional on Chelsea selling a player,”
“It was an important offer, considering the current world where there are so many hardships, but it did not meet our demands, conditions, or quantities.”
Monchi said, as per SI.
The Blues did not finish the window empty-handed, though. They broke the club record to sign Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan and added Saul Niguez to their roster on deadline day. The latter joined on a one-year loan deal with an option to make it permanent from Atletico Madrid.
