Barcelona have offered a new transfer proposal that Sevilla find more attractive than Chelsea’s £55million bid for Jules Kounde, according to Catalan outlet Sport.
The report claims that Chelsea had been leading in the transfer race and very close to reaching a full agreement with Sevilla over a potential transfer for the centre-back until Barcelona made a counter offer on Saturday morning.
Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany reportedly spent his night in Las Vegas, United States, formulating a new proposal, which has completely changed the transfer saga.
According to Sport, while the Catalan club are still not prepared to match Chelsea’s £55m (€65m) bid, but are ready to pay bigger fees up front.
Having activated the second financial lever by selling their future broadcast revenues, Barcelona reportedly have plenty of cash to spend this summer.
The Blues’ proposal, on the other hand, reportedly involves instalment payments and achievable add-ons.
So, based on the reported scenario, while Chelsea are offering more overall, Sevilla would get money to spend on a potential replacement this summer by accepting Barcelona’s offer.
Blaugrana are also said to remain confident that Kounde will prioritise a move to Camp Nou despite reports in England that the player is also open to joining Chelsea.
It remains unclear whether Chelsea would improve their bid, for example, with a better payment structure.
Earlier, Fabrizio Romano claimed that the Blues have already been made to wait for a green light from Sevilla in the last three days.
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