{"id":615179,"date":"2022-07-24T04:53:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T08:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=615179"},"modified":"2022-07-24T04:53:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T08:53:06","slug":"chelsea-close-in-jules-kounde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/24\/chelsea-close-in-jules-kounde\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea on the Verge of Securing \u2018World-Class\u2019 Signing After Rapid Transfer Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/22\/levi-colwill-noni-madueke-matt-oriley-leicester\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> have beaten off competition from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/22\/barcelona-chelsea-target\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona<\/a> to win the race for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/26\/aston-villa-sevilla-defender-signing\/\" target=\"_self\">Sevilla<\/a> defender Jules Kounde, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Matt_Law_DT\/status\/1550500694968438786?s=20&amp;t=YQr8zPC_4NsddFbmwqFVXQ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The French international is set to become the club&#8217;s third signing of the summer, following <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/06\/raheem-sterling-to-chelsea-nearing-completion\/\" target=\"_self\">Raheem Sterling<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/14\/chelsea-closing-in-kalidou-koulibaly\/\" target=\"_self\">Kalidou Koulibaly<\/a> to the English capital. Kounde comes highly rated, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/en-gb\/2022\/05\/19\/forget-bruno-world-class-60m-star-will-be-newcastles-biggest-statement\/?amp&amp;fbclid=IwAR0euSDP2nt04oHyj0cXye02WWxfxS8kPn6jrGEmIjWv9yZvwqCXOmNaWIc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hailed<\/a> as &#8220;World-Class&#8221; and also with fellow Sevilla team-mate Diego Carlos praising his &#8220;great qualities&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kounde set to become Chelsea&#39;s third summer signing in a deal that could give Azpilicueta the green light to go <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/cfc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#cfc<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/p0ppITuXHc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/p0ppITuXHc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Matt_Law_DT\/status\/1550500694968438786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Beat Barcelona to Jules Kounde<\/h2>\n<h3>The Blues\u2019 Long-standing Interest<\/h3>\n<p>Kounde has been on Chelsea&#8217;s radar for quite some time now.<\/p>\n<p>After the sales of Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori last summer, the Blues were on the hunt for a new centre-half to accompany the likes of Thiago Silva and<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/10\/antonio-rudiger-joins-real-madrid\/\" target=\"_self\"> Antonio Rudiger<\/a>. The French international looked as though he would be that man for Chelsea, only for a deal to fall through due to a difference in valuation of the player between the two clubs.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Blues&#8217; interest has remained. After losing Rudiger and Andreas Christiansen at the end of their contracts this summer, the London club have been looking to bolster their options at the back. With new owner <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/27\/petr-cech-departs-stamford-bridge\/\" target=\"_self\">Todd Boehly<\/a> willing to spend big in his first transfer window at the helm, Chelsea have already bought in world-class duo Sterling and Koulibaly to add quality at both ends of the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>The signing of Kounde will all but end concerns about Chelsea&#8217;s lack of numbers in defence as they look to add some more silverware to their trophy cabinet next year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/22\/ac-milan-are-inquiring-on-midfielder\/\" target=\"_self\">AC Milan Are Inquiring About Young Tottenham Hotspur Midfielder<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Competition From Barcelona<\/h3>\n<p>Like Chelsea, Barcelona have made an explosive start to this summer&#8217;s transfer window. The Catalan giants have signed the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/30\/robert-lewandowskis-future-bayern-munich\/\" target=\"_self\">Robert Lewandowski<\/a>, Franck Kessie and Raphinha as they look to improve upon a disappointing campaign where they finished 13 points behind La Liga winners <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/08\/real-madrid-winger-new-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Real Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, it now looks as though the opportunity to sign Kounde is gone after the club failed to place a bid equivalent to that of Chelsea&#8217;s. The signing of the Frenchman could mean that the Blues&#8217; club captain Cesar Azpilicueta is allowed to leave after a decade in London. The Spanish defender has been a target for Barcelona this window and after losing out on Kounde, they could turn their attention to the Chelsea man.<\/p>\n<p>The signing of the French defender continues to show Chelsea&#8217;s ambition in the transfer market as they look to push even further towards the top of the Premier League table next season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Barcelona feel Chelsea&#8217;s proposal for Jules Kound\u00e9 is &#8220;too important&#8221; to be matched. \u00a355m to Sevilla with very good payment terms, almost \u20ac9\/10m salary on a five year contract. \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udd35 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea contracts, ready in Sevilla&#8217;s hands since yesterday. Deal at final stages. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jkqkOycJJI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jkqkOycJJI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1550520257848147968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have beaten off competition from Barcelona to win the race for Sevilla defender Jules Kounde, according to Matt Law. The French international is set to become the club&#8217;s third signing of the summer, following Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly to the English capital. Kounde comes highly rated, hailed as &#8220;World-Class&#8221; and also with fellow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4221,"featured_media":615221,"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":[3,1365,11,6],"tags":[46,1407,1895],"class_list":["post-615179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","category-la-liga","tag-chelsea","tag-chelsea-transfers","tag-thomas-tuchel"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615179","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\/4221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}