Chelsea spent the majority of their summer chasing some of Europe’s best defenders but the Premier League club let the most valuable option slip away.
The London club brought Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana to Stamford Bridge during the summer window but along the way missed out on Matthijs de Ligt and more importantly, Jules Kounde.
The Dutch defender opted for a move to Bayern Munich, whilst Kounde was hijacked from under Chelsea’s nose by Barcelona and now the centre-back has revealed why he chose to join the La Liga giants over the English club.
In an interview with L’Equipe, Kounde spoke about what convinced him to join Barcelona and stated: “I spoke with Tuchel and I also felt that he wanted me to come but I simply preferred Xavi’s speech.”
It seems that Tuchel did not do enough to convince the French star to come to Stamford Bridge as his decision seemed to hinge on the pitches of each coach. Chelsea missed out on one of the best defenders in the world as a result and maybe things could have been different for Tuchel had he done more to lure the Barcelona star to London.
Nevertheless, the Blues got two quality defenders in Koulibaly and Fofana but none of them have the ceiling that the 23-year-old has.
Jules Kounde reveals why he chose Barcelona ? pic.twitter.com/U9GCYVicbK
— GOAL (@goal) September 19, 2022
