How Barcelona bullied Chelsea in the 2022 summer transfer window

Football is largely contested on the pitch, and the better of the two teams comes out on top more often than not. There are, however, moments in it, much like any other any sport, where the matchup takes place outside the default arena.

One of them is the transfer window, where clubs compete to sign the best assets on the market in the hope of bolstering their team ahead of a new season. As you can expect, things do get heated, especially during a conflict between two or more parties.

Players often refuse to leave despite the club pushing for an exit, for example, Frenkie de Jong and Barcelona this summer. Clubs also refuse to let players leave despite concrete offers and interest — Ousmane Dembele and Borussia Dortmund in June 2017.

There are also, of course, disagreements over the transfer cost, ask Robert Lewandowski and Bayern Munich. But when chasing a marquee player, you will see two or more clubs locking horns to outmuscle one another.

This results in a bidding war, sour relationships, inflated prices, and even failed transfers. Neymar cost Barcelona a lot more than he would have if Real Madrid were not interested in him, for example.

This summer, though, transfer battles were slightly different, especially because of two clubs who seemed to be interested in the same players, again and again. This is, of course, about Barcelona and Chelsea.

Unfortunately for the Blues, they were dealing with inarguably the second biggest football entity on the planet, with pull for days.

Barça once hijacked a transfer while the player they wanted was boarding his flight to Rome. If you really thought they didn’t have it in them to get Koundé, you don’t know who they are.

— Xav Salazar (@XavsFutbol) July 23, 2022

Barça Universal recaps how Barcelona bullied Chelsea throughout the summer transfer window.

Andreas Christensen

Let us start slow. Ahead of the window, Chelsea wanted to extend the contract of Andreas Christensen, who was coming off a superb European Championship and was key to their Champions League run.

However, after being contacted by Barcelona, he refused to sign an extension, much to the anger of Thomas Tuchel, who expressed his displeasure about the same rather publicly.

Ousmane Dembele

While there was no concrete offer from Chelsea to Ousmane Dembele, the prospect of signing the Frenchman on a free transfer really appealed to the Stamford Bridge faithful.

Not to mention, it is no secret that Tuchel is a huge admirer of the player, and Chelsea were almost always in contact with Dembele’s agent. Matt Law even reported that they were interested in signing him after Raheem Sterling.

Chelsea remain interested in Dembélé, despite holding talks with Manchester City to sign Sterling.

— @Matt_Law_DT pic.twitter.com/1vulstfuvz

— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) June 28, 2022

However, Dembele ended up renewing his contract with Barcelona for two years, taking a 40% pay cut, despite competition from Raphinha.

Robert Lewandowski

The third on the list is Lewandowski, who was reportedly contacted by Chelsea over a summer move.

Thomas Tuchel wants Chelsea to enter the race to sign Lewandowski. However, the player prefers to join Barcelona.

— @JamesOlley pic.twitter.com/hTBK5iYjyG

— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) July 4, 2022

Joining Stamford Bridge would have assured him higher wages, a more competitive team – at the time -, and a better shot at trophies. However, the best striker in the world only wanted Barcelona and kept Chelsea as his second choice option.

Raphinha

This is where things started to get intense.

Chelsea’s frontline is visibly weak, and they wanted to sign Raphinha from Leeds United to plug some much-needed creativity into the final third.

The Whites demanded an inflated €75 million to let the Brazilian leave, which Chelsea readily offered. The offer was accepted by Leeds, and the transfer seemed to be close to done.

– Barcelona want Kounde – we’re already negotiating.
– Barcelona want Lewandowski – we’re interested.
– Barcelona want Raphinha – we’re set to call him.
– Barcelona want Azpilicueta and Alonso, we’re playing hardball.
– Barcelona want to keep Dembele, we can get him.

Fun. ?

— ⭐️ Chels HQ ⭐️ (@Chels_HQ) June 23, 2022

Enter Barcelona.

Raphinha’s dream was to play at the Camp Nou, and he asked his agent Deco to stop the move to London. Barcelona, aware of their frail attack, too, stopped Leeds in their tracks.

Since it was clear that Raphinha would not move to Chelsea ahead of Barcelona, Leeds ended up accepting a much lower offer, rumoured to be around €60 million, for the winger and the transfer was made official a fortnight ago.

Jules Kounde

The matchup was rounded off last night as Barcelona officially announced the signing of Jules Kounde from Sevilla.

This time, however, the Frenchman was open to a move to Chelsea. They even had their €65 million bid accepted by Sevilla, and the transfer was all but official.

Barcelona decided to intervene at the eleventh hour last Friday at the request of Xavi, tabling a much lower bid. Eventually, Kounde was convinced about joining the Blaugranas, blocked the Chelsea move and completed the switch to Catalonia yesterday evening.

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At this point, we are not even including Barcelona’s links to Marcos Alonso and Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta. The moves are not official, but either way, this will not be a window Tuchel has particularly enjoyed. Fun.