French centre-back asks his agents to hold off Chelsea move in hopes of Barcelona

There has been a lot of chatter surrounding Jules Kounde and his future in the past few days as Chelsea seem to have eked ahead of Barcelona in pursuit of the Sevilla star.

But the Catalans are not prepared to throw in the towel just yet and are preparing a last-minute offer to try and get Kounde to move to Camp Nou.

The player reportedly has his heart set on a move to Barcelona and has an agreement over personal terms. But with Barcelona yet to make an offer for his services, which has left him in a difficult situation at the moment.

However, as reported by Gerard Romero, Kounde is keen on waiting for Barcelona and has informed his agents to hold off on the move to Chelsea and wait for the Blaugrana to make an offer.

Sevilla, for their part, have made it clear that only way Barcelona can sign Kounde is by matching Chelsea’s €65 million offer for the 23-year-old French international.

Barcelona should have the funds available to make such a move after they activated the second economic lever by selling 15% TV rights to Sixth Street, receiving a financial boost worth €320 million.

On top of that, recent reports indicate that the Catalans are contemplating triggering the third lever, which should see them sell a 20-30% stake in Barça Studios, generating a cash inflow of €100 million.

Whether an approach is forthcoming in the coming hours remains to be seen. But, despite the talk of Chelsea winning the race for Kounde, Barcelona could still pip them to the capture of the French defender.