Chelsea’s relationship with Barcelona after Kounde hijacking
FT Desk
- 26 Jul 2022 16:10 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona and Chelsea have been the protagonists in a series of transfer sagas this summer, but the latest threatens to fracture the relationship between the Spanish and English clubs.
Both giants turned their attention towards Jules Kounde, Sevilla's highly rated France centre-back.
Barca are looking to overhaul their backline, after already bringing in Andreas Christensen on a free transfer from Chelsea; while the Blues are in desperate need of reinforcements in defence after losing both the Dane and Antonio Rudiger at the start of the window.
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It is not the first time the two clubs have gone head to head in the last few weeks, either.
Raphinha was the subject of a fierce tug of war before finally getting his wish and moving to Camp Nou, and Kounde is the latest bone of contention.
The Catalans' pursuit of the Chelsea target, though, could in turn harm another aspect of their ambitious summer plans: approaches for Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta, who have both been linked with a move back to Spain with the Blaugrana.
Trouble ahead between Barca & Chelsea
CBS reporter Ben Jacobs revealed the Londoners' discontent with FootballTransfers.
"Chelsea's perspective is that if Barcelona are going to be hijacking their deals, they're not going to be allowing Barcelona anybody quickly before they've got replacements in or on Barcelona's terms," Jacobs explained.
Barcelona keep hijacking Chelsea's transfer targets! 😰
Has that ruined the relationship between the two teams? 🤦♂️@jacobsben explains all pic.twitter.com/BXErH3XVKL— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) July 26, 2022
"With Azpilicueta and Alonso Chelsea will flip the narrative and say, 'this will be done on our terms'.
"They're lucky really with Azpilicueta because as much as he wants to go to Barcelona the reality is that he's hugely respectful still to Chelsea, and he is not going to create acrimony, he'll wait for the move, he's made it clear he wants it, but he will be very respectful of how Chelsea negotiate.
"Alonso's a bit different, because not only is it a little more complicated for Barcelona, certainly to get both, but he would love that move to Spain and he's perhaps a little more intent in making his position clear to Chelsea behind the scenes."
