Chelsea are growing increasingly confident of beating Barcelona to the signing of central defender Jules Kounde from Sevilla.
The two clubs are locked in a battle to land the highly-rated French international but the Blues are now favourite to sign the defender after completing the signing of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli. The West London club landed the Senegalese star after striking a £33.8million (€40m) deal for the 31-year-old. Chelsea have also signed Raheem Sterling from Manchester City in a £50million transfer.
There is set to be a new-look Chelsea defender this summer after Barca confirmed the arrival into their first-team squad of Andreas Christensen following the expiration of his contract at Stamford Bridge as Antonio Rudiger joined Real Madrid as a free agent after his contract at Stamford Bridge expired.