Barcelona's £17million Jules Kounde issue is set to force them into a big £96m transfer decision which is set to benefit Todd Boehly and Chelsea.
The Blues are in need of more reinforcements despite the £180m spent so far this summer. Issues in the depth of the midfield and attack (striker's position) were exposed with the most recent humbling at Elland Road over the weekend against Leeds. Despite manager Thomas Tuchel's reluctance to shut down the need for transfers in favour of concentrating on what he has at his disposal, he knows deep down that more backing is needed from Boehly if the German was to seriously get Chelsea somewhere near the Premier League title conversation this season.
"I don't know. We need to wait. The transfer period is still open. It gets later and later, and we need to focus on what we have and what we can do," Tuchel said in his post-match press conference. "We can obviously play at a high level, but we lost track when there was no need. We were not forced to lose track. Everything was going well. We can win with this team in Leeds, everything was going well, and we had goalscoring opportunities. It went the other way, and I think it was more our fault than anyone else's credit."
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the man that is being targeted for the number 9 position following Kai Havertz' failure so far to grasp at the opportunity that has presented itself since both Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku left. football.london understands that Chelsea are confident of agreeing to a total package of £22m for the former Arsenal man.
Marcos Alonso has been offered as part of the deal but so far, Barca have refuted as they demand straight-up cash to help them with a pressing £17m Jules Kounde issue. The Frenchman is the only signing made by the Blaugrana that hasn't been registered for the new La Liga season and it is understood that Joan Laporta needs to raise £17m to ease this worry. If the money isn't generated in time, Kounde could potentially leave at the end of the month.
No wonder Diario Sport and others are saying that they are now very open to an Aubameyang exit. Of course, if a fee cannot be agreed, Chelsea will have to look elsewhere amid Ivan Toney links and Barca may have to consider other avenues of generating money in the case that the 33-year-old stays.
That leads us down the path of Frenkie de Jong. The midfielder didn't have the best of nights in the 85 minutes he played against Sociedad. He was the man at fault for Alexander Isak's equaliser in the 6th minute.
Nevertheless, it was one mistake and the understanding is that he is still up for sale amid this ongoing contract dispute. With Chelsea's midfield looking threadbare at this moment due to the injuries sustained by Mateo Kovacic and most recently N'Golo Kante, Tuchel despite his adamancy will need to reconsider his priority list as Man United prepare for another assault on De Jong after the Casemiro signing.
"Another midfielder? We have Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, we have Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovacic," Tuchel said rather bluntly when asked about the midfield situation. "They're injured, yes, it's a problem. But they will come back. They've not disappeared."
A £96m double swoop for Aubameyang and De Jong could take the spending for the Blues up to £276m mark. That's even discounting the Wesley Fofana deal which could add an extra £80-85m on top of that figure.
Chelsea fans - Would signing Frenkie de Jong sort out the midfield issue that was on show over the weekend against Leeds United? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
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