Romano: Chelsea in negotiations to sign Kounde

Yesterday, Tottenham Hotspur fans got some good news regarding the club’s long term interest in signing France international defender Jules Kounde. Today, there’s more news but it’s a lot less good.

Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Chelsea have opened negotiations to sign Kounde from Sevilla, that he is the Blues’ top defensive target, and that Kounde is open to a move because he wants to play Champions League football.

Welp.

It makes sense, though. Kounde has been an unlikely transfer for Spurs for a while now because it’s been known that Kounde wants to move to a club that plays in the Champions League. It was said he was keeping his options open, but his first choice was Real Madrid. There’s been recent reporting that Madrid were unlikely to buy Kounde (or possibly anyone) this summer — good news for us — but now that Chelsea have butted in, it looks significantly less likely that he’ll turn his attention to a club in the Europa Conference League.

Tottenham are still in negotiations for the transfer of Cristian Romero from Atalanta, and my guess is that it’s unlikely Spurs would sign both Romero and Kounde anyway, so y’know. Still, it kinda blows that it looks like Chelsea are likely to sign one of the best available young defenders on the market right now. Guess we should’ve just qualified for the Champions League.