Sevilla's sporting director Monchi has blamed Chelsea for their failed attempts to land Jules Kounde, claiming the Blues had doubts and pulled out of the transfer race.
Kounde has ended up staying in LaLiga by joining Barcelona, who reached an agreement with Sevilla as their summer recruitment drive continues. Chelsea have been in the market for new defenders after seeing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen leave at the expiry of their contracts.
Kalidou Koulibaly has been brought in from Napoli but the Chelsea had a long-standing interest in Kounde, who was on their radar last summer. More new faces are needed to bolster Thomas Tuchel's defensive line, but Monchi has laid the blame firmly at their door for missing out on the Frenchman.
He told the club's website : "On Thursday night Kounde was ‘sold’ to Chelsea, for a fee accepted by all parties. They began to have doubts and pulled out. Due to situations that arise sometimes, no matter how long you've been in this world, there was some movement at Chelsea that made them doubt whether they needed a player with Kounde's profile."
Having missed out on Kounde, Tuchel is left with the likes of Koulibaly, Thiago Silva, Cesar Azpilicueta and Trevoh Chalobah to pick from in defence. Sevilla's chief believes that Chelsea's reluctance to pursue Kounde was due to concerns over how he would fit into his squad.
He claimed: "There were more suitors for Kounde at the beginning of the market than at the end, and above all, the one who has stayed is Chelsea, who in the last month have kept us busy and negotiating to the point that last Thursday we reached a verbal agreement and so did the player.
Have you say! Do Chelsea still need to add new defenders? Let us know here.
"Football never ceases to surprise you. Chelsea began to have doubts and pulled out. They didn't doubt Jules' quality but his place within the squad.
"Everything stopped over the weekend, and then Barcelona appeared. It's important to mention this, but the first time [Barcelona sporting director Mateu] Alemany got in contact was on Monday. He showed his interest in signing Kounde. We received an offer that was lower than what we had in mind, but we renegotiated with them and reached an agreement for a club-record sale [of £42million]."
Barcelona's heavy spending this summer comes despite their well documented financial issues, with Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha also joining from Bayern Munich and Leeds respectively. Frenkie de Jong has been linked with an exit but is still owed millions by the club in unpaid wages. Chelsea, meanwhile, have now missed out on several of their summer targets, having also been in the market for Raphinha.
