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Chelsea have beaten Barcelona to the signature of Sevilla centre-back Jules Koundé.
The French international has been a long-term target of The Blues, and they spent last summer being heavily linked with him, but were not prepared to meet the Spanish club’s valuation in the end.
They have maintained their interest, but at one stage, looked like they would miss out on him to Barcelona, as occurred in the case of Leeds winger Raphinha.
However, this time it looks like they have finally got their man with an offer of £55 million, which the Catalan side could not match.
Koundé is set to sign a five year deal and will join Kalidou Koulibaly at the heart of a new-look defence under Thomas Tuchel.
There is better news for Barcelona in the fact that the arrival of Koundé may means that César Azpilcueta may now be allowed to leave West London to join them.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.