Chelsea give Barcelona Alonso deadline
FT Desk
- 21 Aug 2022 16:55 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona have been told they must either step up their efforts to sign Marcos Alonso or else forget about landing the Chelsea defender this summer.
Alonso is a long-time target at Camp Nou, with the Catalans keen to add him to their squad as further depth at left-back alongside Jordi Alba.
Despite that interest, however, and Alonso's own desire to line up at Barca, a deal is yet to materialise.
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Having lose Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen on free transfers Chelsea are determined to get a fair price for their player, who has been at Stamford Bridge since 2016 and made over 200 first-team appearances.
Barca will thus have to pay up to €10 million to sign Alonso, while the Blues have already prepared for his possible exit with the arrival of Marc Cucurella from Brighton.
Having dragged their feet recently, though, they will have to accelerate their approach.
Sport reports that Chelsea have set the end of the coming week as the deadline for a deal to be completed, while Barca continue to play for time.
After a fevered window of transfer activity the Blaugrana are compromised by the La Liga salary cap and remain unable to register one of their new signings, ex-Sevilla defender Jules Kounde.
The club first hopes to unload a handful of first-teamers in order to free up space, with Samuel Umtiti and Memphis Depay the top priorities for sales.
Swap deal may be the answer
One tantalising option could see Alonso move to Camp Nou in return for a player going the other way.
According to recent reports Chelsea have identified Pierre Emerick Aubameyang as a top target up front and will move for the Gabon international before the end of the window.
A deal worth €17.6m plus Alonso would be hard to refuse for Barcelona, who are keen to keep the striker in their squad but may not be able to turn down such a fee for a player who arrived for nothing just six months ago.
