Chelsea hesitation made Barcelona successful in signing Kounde

director Monchi claimed that

refused to complete the transfer of

, which led to

sneaking in and finalizing the move.

Chelsea reached a personal agreement with Kounde at the beginning of the month and it was expected that the transfer would be finalized by the end of the month, but Barcelona came in and was able to convince the French star to move to Camp Nou. Now Monchi claimed that Chelsea's hesitation made Barca succeed in this transfer.

He said:

"On Thursday, we reached a verbal agreement with Chelsea and the player had also agreed personal terms with the English side, but everything stopped over the weekend.

"In that tug of war with Chelsea, Mateu Alemany (Barcelona sporting director) contacted me on Monday. After working on amounts, we reached an agreement, achieving the most important sale in the club's history."

The Spanish director added: 

"Kounde agreed on the sale to Chelsea, there was an agreement with the player. At the club, they hesitated and said they wanted to wait. That wait continued and Barça appeared. It is true that Chelsea later wanted to return, but Barça's offer at the end was better.

"There were several suitors at the beginning of the summer, but only Chelsea and Barcelona remained at the end. Chelsea began to have doubts, not about the player but the way to approach the market for defensive reinforcements. Their offer was good but they decided to stop.

"Alemany voiced his interest to us, we asked him for an offer and one arrived that is lower than we had in mind. After working on it with a significant effort from Barcelona, we reached a significant amount."

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