Barcelona beat Chelsea to Kounde deal, set to sign Sevilla defender

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By Martin Graham | 28th Jul 2022

Barcelona are ahead in the chase for Jules Kounde with an agreement for the Sevilla defender. Chelsea were close to signing Kounde, but the Catalan giants arrived to scupper the deal.

There is something off at Barcelona, yet the club keeps moving on like all is well. The Catalan giants have been acting like they got wind of a massive inheritance. Despite their financial situation, which is at best dire, the La Liga giants have been keen to acquire any shiny new toy that catches their fancy.

Perhaps like a scam artist, they may be operating another person’s credit card. It remains unexplainable that despite the financial distress Barcelona finds itself in and having to sell a chunk of their future, they are still going after different players.

The club hierarchy claims they have a plan to register the players they have signed, though they have found it an arduous task to ship the surplus out. Los Blaugrana have a long line of players they want out of the club but have been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Barcelona are close to signing another player as they seek to beef up their squad.

Barca beat Chelsea to Kounde

It seems the strategy for Barcelona is to wait for Chelsea to get into advanced discussions with a club, then they come in and steal the deal. Chelsea were first to go for Raphinha and had an agreement with Leeds United, only for Barcelona to come in at the last minute to sign the player.

Chelsea, looking to beef up its defence to replace Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen (who also went to Barcelona), tried to sign Jules Kounde. The Stamford Bridge side seemed to have sealed the deal and agreed to a fee with Sevilla, but Barca have come in once again to truncate the agreement.

Chelsea are left licking their wounds after Barca stole a march on the Blues for Sevilla defender Jules Kounde. According to ESPN on Wednesday, the Spanish giants have agreed to a fee of around €55 million with Sevilla.

A rash of players and a mountain of debt

Chelsea have been on the trail of Kounde since last season, and according to reports last week, the French defender was close to a Chelsea move, only for Barca to scupper the deal.

Barcelona have a massive debt hanging on their head with funds, a challenge for the Catalan giants. To remain competitive without falling further behind Real Madrid, who are more stable and in a better financial state, Barcelona had to sell part of its TV rights.

Barcelona can buy players due to the latest injection of funds. Buoyed by the sale of domestic TV rights, the club confidently stood toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite. Sixth Street, an investment firm, benefitted from the deal after acquiring 25% of Barcelona’s domestic television rights for the next 25 years for around €530m. The TV rights are worth an annual figure of €160m to Barcelona.

Despite the injection of funds, Barcelona need to get within their LaLiga spending limit, which stood at -€144m at the end of last season. They are the only club in La Liga operating within a negative cap. Barcelona still need to register all their new signings and the contracts signed by Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele. The Catalan side needs to sell players, but there are no takers yet.

Meanwhile, if the deal sails through, Kounde would become Barcelona’s sixth signing this summer after the arrivals of Pablo Torre, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha and Lewandowski.