Chelsea are now extremely confident they can sign Jules Kounde from Sevilla, football.london understands. The 23-year-old is also being pursued by Barcelona but the Catalan club are understood to be unable to match the Blues' £55million bid that went in earlier this week.
A £55m fee was verbally agreed between Chelsea and Sevilla earlier in the week for Kounde, with personal terms settled on a few months ago. However, Barca are determined to hijack the deal but they may now be forced to give up as they are unable to match Chelsea's bid, a source has told football.london.
Chelsea will now be looking to get the Kounde deal tied up as soon as possible before anything changes. The France international is open to moving to Stamford Bridge around 12 months on from the move breaking down due to Sevilla's asking price last summer.
READ MORE: Chelsea can make biggest statement of intent yet under Todd Boehly with Jules Kounde transfer
Kounde would become Chelsea's third signing of the summer transfer window, following the arrivals of Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling earlier this month. It's understood Thomas Tuchel wants to bring in three new central defenders, with Kounde set to become the second.
football.london spoke to Spanish football expert Sid Lowe last month about what Kounde will bring to Chelsea if he is signed and he was very complimentary about the France international. I think Kounde is a wonderful footballer," Lowe said in June. "You get a defender who reads the game well, who's good at the defensive stuff as well.
"Part of the issue might be how exactly you want to satisfy him because he wants to play the game. He sometimes has this – what appears to be – a free role from centre-back.
"He loves to come out, he uses the ball really well, he very much seems to enjoy playing, and he defends very well as well. I don't think he's a modern centre-back, certainly from a Spanish point of view, in the sense of the obsession of bringing the ball out from the back, although he can absolutely do that.
"He likes to carry the ball out from the back rather than being the passer. So, for example, he's not the same as Pau Torres or Gerard Pique. I've watched a lot of games this season from right behind the goal, and every time, I've been really impressed with his ability to take the ball in compromising positions, to run his way out if he gets put under too much pressure. Physically, he's very good and technically, I think he's excellent."
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