Chelsea ‘unlikely to drop interest’ in Jules Koundé despite transfer defeat — report

Chelsea were very active in the final 24-48 hours of the transfer window, but we only managed to land one of our two primary targets, and with just minutes to spare, even. (Literally two or three, depending on which report you read.)

The target we missed out on was Jules Koundé, who ended up staying at Sevilla despite a lengthy pursuit and plenty of positive reporting and assumptions over the past several weeks. This time a month ago, it already looked like a done deal, but there was evidently some serious miscommunication between the two sides. Chelsea seemed to believe that we would get a deal done at around €50m but Sevilla were never quite willing to deal at that price (similarly to last summer, when they held off Manchester City at the same price point). So from our end, it looked like Sevilla shifted the goalposts in the final week, but from their perspective, we simply didn’t meet their asking price. These things happen.

But, as mentioned in the Guardian’s wrap-up of the transfer window, our interest in Koundé isn’t fleeting. We’ve been tracking him for a while, and are “unlikely” to admit final defeat just after one window. So, see you next June or perhaps January? Our defensive revamp is only just getting started, after all.