Chelsea ask FC Barcelona 25 million euros for César Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso

Barça are focused on signing the two Chelsea full-backs, Marcos Alonso and Azpilicueta, to complete their squad. The club hopes to further the negotiations this week, but it has not been easy. At the beginning of July, Chelsea asked for 25 million euros to release the two players, during the visit of the new owner of the London club, Todd Boehly, to Barcelona. Barça are very unlikely to pay so much for two players who both want to come and who both have only one year left on their contracts.

Chelsea have always been open to negotiations, although they wanted to impose their conditions. In the meantime, Barça has been keeping the two players engaged to prevent them from talking to other teams. Both Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso have done a lot to try to sign for Barça and the club also is clear that they will make every effort.

Ideally, Barça would like to undertake the two operations separately, whereas Chelsea have been dragging their feet to ensure they have signed their replacements before letting them leave. Marcos Alonso now has a possible replacement in Cucurella, and Chelsea are now looking to sign Fofana to finish up fortifying their defence. More news should arrive in the coming days, but Barça expect to pay less than €10 million for each of them. Tuchel will allow for the departure at the request of the players themselves.