Chelsea finally make contact with Sevilla over Jules Kounde transfer | Soccer

The West London club have been chasing the center since last summer, when they agreed on personal terms with Kounde but failed to negotiate a fee with Sevilla, who were determined to leave only if his release clause be complied with.

A year late and under pressure to pay in cash, a £ 56 million offer would now be accepted – but Sevilla were confused over a lack of communication from Chelsea over a deal.

Instead, the Blues have been linked with moves for such as Juventus star Matthijs de Ligt and Inter’s Milan Skriniar while Barcelona have moved to the front of the queue for Konde.

But now ABC Sevilla reports that Boehly has finally made contact over a transfer, and reached out on Wednesday morning to start working on a deal.

There is a feeling from all parties that the transfer will be relatively uncomplicated to complete, with Sevilla lowering their asking price since last summer and Konde happy with the personal terms agreed a year ago.

Barcelona remain in the hunt but still do not have the funds to complete any transfers until the sale of part of its retail arm has gone through.

That opened the door for Chelsea, with Sevilla eager to make the sale before July 5 – both an important date financially, as well as the day before they leave on a pre-season tour of Portugal.

Although Chelsea now have a whole new hierarchy, with Boehly acting as interim sporting director following Marina Granovskaia’s departure, they are still hoping to get Konde closer to the £ 43 million price tag they offered last year.

The 23-year-old is thought to have been a bit confused about Chelsea’s initial lack of interest, especially after their long transfer saga, but remains open to relocating to West London.

Konde is happy to accept the five-year contract offer that has been on the table for the best part of a year, although the bottleneck is once again to agree to a fee with Sevilla.

Manager Thomas Tuchel is keen to add two center-backs to his squad this summer, one to play on the right side of his back three and another to play on the left, having both Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger on free transfers lost.

De Ligt and Skriniar are two names linked by moves, while the club are also working on two attacking recruits with fees apparently agreed for both Leeds United star Raphinha and Manchester City wing Raheem Sterling.

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