Sevilla president Jose Castro has spoken out on his club receiving a bid for star defender Jules Kounde amid transfer rumours linking him with Chelsea.
The France international is a superb young player with a big future in the game, and it seems inevitable that he’ll be on his way to an elite European club before too long.
Chelsea would no doubt benefit from bringing in someone like Kounde as a long-term successor to the ageing Thiago Silva, who surely doesn’t have that much longer left at the highest level.
Still, Sevilla won’t necessarily make things easy for Chelsea, with Castro suggesting his club are yet to see any suitable offers for Kounde.
“It is true that there was an offer for Kounde that we turned down,” Castro told reporters, as quoted by Goal.
“Right now there is no concrete offer for the player. If it comes, we will look at it as we always have done. If we have to [sell], we will do, as long as those resources can be re-invested in the club to keep improving and expand our trophy cabinet.
“While the market is open, anything can happen. We have players who could leave. Anything can happen this time of year until the 31st. It is a window where there have been few moves in most clubs, but not in ours.”
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The message to Chelsea seems pretty clear – that they will have to pay up, or Kounde won’t be going anywhere this summer.
Sevilla have often sold their best players for a decent profit, so Chelsea may well fancy their chances of tempting the Spanish side into a sale here as well.
The Blues have, alternatively, been very strongly linked with an imminent deal for Kounde by the reliable Gianluca Di Marzio in the tweet below…
#Kounde @ChelseaFC for €50M to @SevillaFC: deal almost done @SkySports @SkySportsNews
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) August 25, 2021
CFC supporters will hope this move can go through as it would cap a hugely impressive transfer window for the club.
The signing of Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan looks potentially like one of the deals of the summer, and adding Kounde to their defence may well cement their status as Premier League title favourites.