Sevilla leave Jules Kounde OUT of their pre-season trip to Portugal as he nears £55m move to Chelsea

Sevilla have left Chelsea and Barcelona target Jules Kounde out of their pre-season tour as an exit from the Spanish side looks to be imminent. 

Kounde, who has been offered in excess of £10million-a-year to join Chelsea, looks to be on his way out of the LaLiga team on a £55m deal. 

The Blues look to have beaten competitors Barca to his signature, with Xavi having highlighted Kounde as a player to build his defence around in his ongoing rebuild at the Catalan giants. 

Jules Kounde has been offered more than £10million-a-year to join long-term suitors Chelsea

Sevilla want to accept Chelsea’s bid over that of Barcelona as it offers straight cash while Barca were proposing players such as Memphis Depay.

Kounde looks set to join Chelsea in a big-money move 

Kounde said farewell to fans as he left the club’s training ground on Wednesday and hopes a deal is agreed on Thursday with personal terms already in place.

The Blues are set to offer Kounde a mammoth salary in order to beat Barcelona to his signature as they advance talks with Sevilla, in the knowledge that Barca’s well-documented financial issues will prevent them from competing.

Having failed to land the French international last summer at the final hurdle, the west London side had hoped that piling money onto the negotiating table would get them over the line this summer. 

But Barca are not completely out of the frame, and Sevilla are bracing themselves for one last push from Los Cules, although their prospects of success do not look good, with talks advanced with Chelsea. 

Their hopes hang on Kounde following in the path of Raphinha by choosing Barca over alternative options, although the prospect of joining a financially stable Chelsea will likely be too good to say no to. 

Kounde’s time in Spain looks to be over after three impressive seasons at Sevilla

But Barca have already identified alternative options, should they fail in their pursuit of Kounde, as now looks likely. 

Arsenal defender William Saliba is top of that list after he was included in Ligue 1’s Team of the Season and named the league’s Young Player of the Year, helping Marseille to a second-place finish behind PSG.  

As well as the Gunners’ star, Barca are also tracking Inter Milan’s Milan Skriniar, RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol, Athletic Bilbao’s Inigo Martinez and Roma’s Roger Ibanez.