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Chelsea could lose possession of two of their first-team centre-backs in the summer on a free, and Barcelona look poised to bring one of them to Spain. Both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen will see their contracts expire in June, making them free agents.
Chelsea's outgoing owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned in March. Following that, the club has been functioning under a few restrictions, one of which is contract negotiations. With the suspense surrounding the new ownership, the two players seem to have chosen to end their stay at Stamford Bridge.
Barcelona are the favorites to secure Christensen's signature, who is reportedly going to sign a four-year deal with the club.
Ramon Planes, the former technical secretary of the Blaugrana, recently revealed that the club has been keeping tabs on the Danish defender for quite a while now. They even made an advanced approach for the player a few years ago.
While speaking on Catalunya Radio as quoted by AS, he said:
"Christensen is a good centre-back. In fact, I know that three years ago, we met with his agents when he didn’t play much at Chelsea — we met with his father, with the player and with the CEO of Chelsea.”
This was back when Antonio Conte was the manager of the Blues and the Dane was a bit-part player under him. Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, has given Christensen decent game time while rotating his back-three from time to time.
The 26-year-old has made 33 appearances in all competitions so far this season and has also found the back of the net twice. Football London believes that Chelsea had agreed a deal with the Barcelona target's representatives in August, but he did not put pen to paper.
Later, there were issues with the length of the contract, reported to be five years, and the agent's commission in the deal. Christensen has already spoken to the Catalan club's transfer chiefs about his summer arrival.
Chelsea turn to Sevilla man to replace Barcelona-bound defender
With two of his vital centre-backs leaving in the summer, Thomas Tuchel is preparing to add two new defenders to his squad. The Blues are most likely to return with a bid for Sevilla centre-back Jules Kounde, who they tried to sign last summer as well.
The Athletic has revealed (via Football London) that Chelsea had a verbal agreement with the La Liga side for a fee in the region of £43 million for Kounde. However, the Blues sold Kurt Zouma to West Ham in the same transfer window which encouraged Sevilla to increase their asking price.
The 23-year-old French centre-back remains Tuchel's priority this summer and could even prove to be an upgrade on the Barcelona-bound Christensen.
