{"id":613533,"date":"2022-06-09T09:29:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T13:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=613533"},"modified":"2022-06-09T10:07:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T14:07:17","slug":"french-defender-priority-for-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/09\/french-defender-priority-for-chelsea\/","title":{"rendered":"French Defender A &#8216;Priority&#8217; for Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/08\/spanish-midfielder-leaving-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> have prioritised French defender Jules Kound\u00e9 in the summer transfer window, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1534841210250067970?t=b7BBihX2agyKHqIehsqgRA&amp;s=19\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to Fabrizio Romano.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The 23-year-old has been high on the radar of Thomas Tuchel for some time and Romano adds that talks are advanced on the player side.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">However, it is believed that Sevilla are still waiting to receive an official bid for the Frenchman, who is valued at \u20ac65 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jules Kound\u00e9 is still a priority for Chelsea. Tuchel wants him. Talks are well advanced on player side, while Sevilla are still waiting to receive the opening bid.<\/p>\n<p>Price tag will be around \u20ac65m.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@FabrizioRomano<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bPN1VzJwP5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/bPN1VzJwP5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/siphillipssport\/status\/1534842837728206848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\">Chelsea Prioritise French Defender<\/h2>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">Chelsea&#8217;s Defensive Departures and Possible Targets<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/10\/antonio-rudiger-joins-real-madrid\/\" target=\"_self\">departure of German defender Antonio Rudiger<\/a> to Real Madrid and imminent loss of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/16\/thomas-tuchel-andreas-christensen-exit\/\" target=\"_self\">Andreas Christensen<\/a>, Jules Kound\u00e9 would be seen as a direct replacement in defence.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There is also uncertainty over Marcos Alonso, who is expected to join Christensen at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/05\/bayern-munich-striker-barcelona\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona<\/a> in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">With Kound\u00e9, Tuchel has been an admirer of the French defender for some time and the German is in need of defensive reinforcements ahead of the new Premier League season.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">His versatility could be key for the Blues as the 23-year-old centre back can also play as a right-back, should Tuchel need him to do so.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Kound\u00e9, who is out of contract in 2024, does have a release clause of \u20ac80 million but Romano states that the price tag will be around \u20ac65 million, which is just over \u00a355 million. However, this won&#8217;t be an issue under the new ownership of Todd Boehly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/08\/leicester-city-defender-manchester-united-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\"><em>Read Also: Manchester United and Chelsea to Fight Over \u20ac80 Million 21-Year-Old Premier League Star<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Blues are also in the market for Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana, with the 21-year-old having already established himself in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/07\/chelsea-manchester-united-rb-leipzig-defender\/\" target=\"_self\">Josko Gvardiol is another defensive option<\/a> for Chelsea. The left-footed centre back, who plays for RB Leipzig, has emerged as one of Europe&#8217;s most promising defenders, but Chelsea could face competition from Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">No Offer Yet For Sevilla Defender<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As previously stated, Chelsea are yet to table a bid for Kound\u00e9, with Sevilla still awaiting an official offer.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The defender joined Sevilla from Bordeaux in 2019 and has gone on to make 133 appearances for <i>Los Nervionenses<\/i>. He also has ten caps for the French national team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have prioritised French defender Jules Kound\u00e9 in the summer transfer window, according to Fabrizio Romano. The 23-year-old has been high on the radar of Thomas Tuchel for some time and Romano adds that talks are advanced on the player side. However, it is believed that Sevilla are still waiting to receive an official bid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":613535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,6,3,7188,28],"tags":[6667,366],"class_list":["post-613533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-la-liga","category-premier-league","category-rumours","category-transfers","tag-jules-kounde","tag-sevilla"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}