Jules Koundé situation ‘must be resolved in the next few hours’ — reports

If Chelsea are to make a play on Jules Koundé, now is the time to do so. Kurt Zouma has gone to West Ham, freeing up a spot. His transfer was said to be gating our approach for the younger France international center back.

Koundé himself has evidently done all that he can to entice a bid finally from the Blues. He had taken himself out of consideration for Sevilla’s last game, though as he continues to wait, he is also starting to get nervous. That’s the word from local outlet ABC Deportes, who also proclaim that the situation “must be resolved in the next few hours” one way or another.

Of course, beyond just the personnel consideration, Koundé’s asking price remains a point of contention as well, which might prove the biggest hurdle of all.

Chelsea had supposedly agreed a bonus-laded €50-55m transfer last week already, but that’s starting to look like egregiously hopeful reporting at this point — especially as Sevilla rejected €55m from Manchester City last summer. AS claims that Chelsea’s up front fee might have to be closer to €60-65m, while Marca go even further by claiming that Sevilla are in fact holding out for the €80m that was Koundé’s release clause (said clause might have increased to €90m, even, to discourage late-window bidding even further). Meanwhile, ESPN add that the structure of the deal in terms of payments is still under discussion as well.

The rumor mill always likes to play up the drama of transfers, but this deal really doesn’t seem that close to being finalized just yet, even after all this time. Things can change quickly of course, so if we want Koundé, we might have to start making some quick decisions — but without panicking please!