{"id":615336,"date":"2022-07-27T13:30:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=615336"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:34:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:34:57","slug":"barcelona-signing-chelsea-target-kounde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/27\/barcelona-signing-chelsea-target-kounde\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Here We Go!&#8217; &#8211; Fabrizio Romano Reveals Where \u00a350.5 Million &#8216;Mentality Monster&#8217; Is Going"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/27\/fabrizio-romano-manchester-united-frenkie-de-jong\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona<\/a> have agreed a deal to sign Sevilla defender and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/26\/chelsea-interest-denzel-dumfries\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> target Jules Kounde, according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1552310149527789568\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fabrizio Romano<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Romano reports that Barcelona have now reached an agreement with both the player and Sevilla with a formal announcement expected that will confirm the France international&#8217;s move. The transfer will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/en\/news\/barca\/barcelona-and-sevilla-reach-a-deal-for-jules-kounde-14157770\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly<\/a> cost the Catalan giants approximately \u00a350.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kounde has been a Chelsea target for much of the summer, however, they will now need to turn their attention to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fourfourtwo.com\/news\/chelsea-report-blues-identify-three-defensive-alternatives-to-jules-kounde\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other targets<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Target Jules Kounde on the Move to Barcelona<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jules Kound\u00e9 to Barcelona, here we go! Verbal agreement now in place with Sevilla after the long saga and further negotiations today, waiting to get it signed soon. \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udd35\ud83d\udd34 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FCB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FCB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jules Kound\u00e9 agreed personal terms with Bar\u00e7a last weekend, contract ready. Xavi, key factor again. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eX2jeVPheF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eX2jeVPheF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1552310149527789568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 27, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Barcelona Bolster Their Defence With Jules Kounde<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sevilla centre-back would join former Chelsea defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcbarcelona.com\/en\/football\/first-team\/news\/2666783\/christensen-second-signing-for-fc-barcelona\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andreas Christensen<\/a> in arriving at the Camp Nou this summer. The pair will be among Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo and Oscar Mingueza in the heart of the Barcelona defence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kounde was a key player for Sevilla in the 21\/22 season, making 32 appearances during his third season at the La Liga club. He had already made a name for himself before this, even being described as a <a href=\"https:\/\/weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com\/chelsea-fc-transfer-rumours-news\/2021\/7\/29\/22599445\/little-big-man-kounde-motivated-to-prove-everyone-wrong-about-his-height\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;mentality monster&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0last summer, but over the past year confirmed himself as a reliable centre-back choice for any top side. The former Bordeaux man possesses excellent athletic ability and pace at centre-back, which also means that he has the versatility to line up on the right-hand side of the defence if needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 23-year-old is excellent on the ball, ranking in the 98th percentile for dribbles completed and the 90th percentile for progressive carries among his central defensive peers. He\u2019s also an accomplished passer, ranking in the 84th percentile for progressive passes and the 89th percentile in passes attempted. Therefore, it\u2019s easy to see why his skillset is coveted by Barcelona manager Xavi who likes his team to be comfortable in possession.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Chelsea\u2019s Transfer Blues<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the departure of Christensen and fellow centre-back Antonio Rudiger, who joined Real Madrid this summer, Chelsea have somewhat of a gaping hole in the heart of their defence. The club have completed the signing of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/14\/chelsea-closing-in-kalidou-koulibaly\/\" target=\"_self\">Kalidou Koulibaly<\/a> from Napoli but they still look to be in the market for another defender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the exception of Koulibaly, it seems Chelsea have struggled to complete deals for their defensive targets this summer. As well as Kounde, Chelsea were also targeting <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/26\/timo-werner-chelsea-exit\/\" target=\"_self\">Juventus<\/a>\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/fcbayern.com\/en\/news\/2022\/07\/fc-bayern-complete-transfer-of-matthijs-de-ligt\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mathias De Ligt<\/a> before the Netherlands international joined Bundesliga Champions <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/24\/mathys-tel-bayern-munich\/\" target=\"_self\">Bayern Munich<\/a> instead. The West London club will now need to look elsewhere once again as they look to bolster their defence before the start of the 2022\/23 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inter Milan\u2019s Denzel Dumfries is a name that has been mentioned in recent weeks, as is RB Leipzig\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/20\/chelsea-josko-gvardiol-alternative-choice\/\" target=\"_self\">Josko Gvardiol<\/a>. With Chelsea kicking off their Premier League season against Everton on August 6th they will need to act fast if they are to bring players in before the start of the campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona have agreed a deal to sign Sevilla defender and Chelsea target Jules Kounde, according to Fabrizio Romano. Romano reports that Barcelona have now reached an agreement with both the player and Sevilla with a formal announcement expected that will confirm the France international&#8217;s move. The transfer will reportedly cost the Catalan giants approximately \u00a350.5 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4148,"featured_media":615347,"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":[1365,11,6,3,7188],"tags":[9284,6667],"class_list":["post-615336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","category-la-liga","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-barcelona-transfer-rumours","tag-jules-kounde"],"modified_by":"Joseph Howes, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615336","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\/4148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}