Barça to make a new, final offer to Sevilla for Jules Koundé
Sevilla have further advanced their negotiations with Chelsea, but Barça will make one last attempt for the player, although they will not match the figures offered by the London club
Chelsea are pulling out all the stops to sign Jules Koundé. Having failed to do the same last year, the London club now hope to close the deal as soon as possible, and they have cornered Sevilla by putting a huge amount of money on the table. They have offered 65 million euros for the transfer with a net salary of around 12 million euros for the Gallic central-defender, an amount which is practically impossible for Barça to match.
Koundé was always a priority target for Xavi, but the club preferred to focus first on building their attack, by signing Raphinha and Lewandowski. With that done, and bearing in mind that Christensen had already been signed months ahead, Laporta and crew have now shifted focus to strengthening their defence. As we said, Sevilla and Chelsea have advanced their negotiations quite far already, but the Sevillian club are expecting a final hurrah from Barça for Koundé, who also happen to be the player's preferred choice of team.
In any event, Barça are aware that they can not match 65 million euros, much less the 12 million in salary, and instead, their offer would likely be about 6-7 million euros net. But despite this, they will make a final, albeit much lower, offer. The decision of Koundé himself will be the key here. Unless he forces his stance and remains steadfast in his resolve to end up at FC Barcelona (as both Raphinha and Lewandowski did), the situation does not look good for Barça's interests.
