Barcelona are close to finalising a deal for the 23 year old French international Jules Kounde, which has thrown a serious wrench into the off-season for Chelsea.
I was convinced that Kounde was the perfect profile to spot into the RCB position, his speed and agility is elite, I believe he is versatile enough to mark very fast players like Vinicius Jr or Mbappe.
Clearlake, Todd Boehly and Thomas Tuchel spent time chasing defenders like De Ligt & Nathan Ake instead of trying to get the transfer with Sevilla completed. Barcelona came in with the lever and it is what it is, now we have to move on. What I’m going to do here is provide 3 options for us to get done (Thomas Tuchel is on record for wanting 1 CB for sure and ideally 2). So what I got for us is 2 strong options, and I have 1 controversial one but he’s a cheaper option and I think he replaces a profile well.
Presnel Kimpembe – 26 years old, French. LCB, LB / 6’0 / Left Footed
221 apps for PSG • 28 apps for France National team.
Traits & Strengths – Leadership, aggression & intensity, ball playing ability, high IQ.
Market Value – £55m-£60m (Infamous acknowledges this is an expensive price-tag, but Chelsea were prepared to pay similar for Kounde.
Thomas Tuchel has experience with this player at PSG, Kimpembe’s name has been circulating around for at least a few weeks now. We could really see Chelsea push here and try to go back for him after the Kounde saga. In some ways, I think Kimpembe is the best Rudiger replacement in terms of trying to find what Antonio brought for the team. They both typically occupy space on the left side of their defences, while both are very impressive on the ball. Probably the best part would be Chelsea’s build up play would continue to be enhanced. Kimpembe has the highest passing % for defenders out of the top leagues in Europe (FBRef).
Josko Gvardiol 20 years old, Croatian. LCB/LB / 6’1 / Left Footed
46 apps for Leipzig – 52 apps for Dínamo Zagreb and 10 apps for Croatia.
Traits & Strengths – Speed, strength, ball playing ability, aggression and intensity.
Gvardiol’s Market Value is between £60m-£70m (Leipzig have no reason to sell the defender with time on his contract so it will take a lot of things for this one to materialise. The ownership there have funds & the ambition to keep their best players. With this in mind, I’d be ok with releasing the money from our budget and we could even temp Leipzig with Timo Werner. The wonder-kid from Croatia is next up on my list as his name has been mentioned as an option since the start of the transfer market. At 20 years old, I would have no problem to invest the time and energy to see the defender develop at Stamford Bridge. All signs point to him becoming one of the best defenders in the world, and he fits the modern game as he’s very versatile and he fits really well in systems that are being put into place more and more in top leagues.
Benjamin Pavard 26 years old, France RCB/RB / 6’1 / Right Footed
119 apps for Bayern Munich – 88 apps for VFB Stuggart – 25 apps for Lille and 45 apps for France.
Traits and Strengths : Ball playing ability, versality.
I know, I know what you guys are all thinking “he’s not good enough for Chelsea”. Look, we’re essentially in a defender crisis now and we need to see new faces through the door. Benjamin Pavard is the closest profile replacement in the world for Andreas Christensen, they have a lot of similarities. I honestly think under the tutelage of Thomas Tuchel he can help develop Pavard into one of the better CBs of the Premier League. He could tuck into the RCB spot in the back 3 nicely and also cover at RB if we play in a back 4. He’s an experienced player at this stage and he probably plays better at France then at Bayern, however he did perform under coach Flick. I know it’s a gamble and one of the riskier names we’ve been linked too, but at the price-tag of under £30m I’ll roll the dice and see if he can help Chelsea.
Pavard’s Market Value is around £25m-£30m (Bayern Munich completed the signing of De Ligt and that could mean that players like Pavard look elsewhere for game time, Nagelsman said he wants to keep him but I would pay this amount if he’s available).
