Chelsea Talks For Atletico Madrid's Saul And Sevilla's Kounde Collapse

The Blues look unlikely to make any late deadline day signings unless there is a remarkable late bid for a key target.

Chelsea's hopes of a late transfer window signing have been rocked by the news surrounding both Atletico Madrid's Saul Niguez and Sevilla's Jules Kounde.

Having set out the terms for Saul, Chelsea have gone quiet on Atleti's demands to add in a £34 million (€40m) obligation to buy the 26-year-old.

Meanwhile, in a press conference in Seville, club director Monchi confirmed Chelsea missed an important deadline and must now pay the €80m (£68m) release clause for Kounde.

What did Monchi say?
"Kounde can leave before midnight if anybody pays his clause, then we can do nothing. He has the same chance to leave as all his teammates," Monchi said.

"The only offer from Chelsea for Kounde was last Wednesday at around 5pm for an amount we didn't like. It was linked to Chelsea selling a player. It was a decent fee but it didn't meet our criteria.

"We responded with a counter-offer which had a deadline of Friday, to allow us to be able to sign a replacement. They did not respond to that counter-offer before Friday. Kounde's clause never went up to €90m. It has always been €80m.

"We all decided that it was best Jules didn't travel to Elche. It's normal for players to be affected by news of any kind. Last year he had the interest from City and now Chelsea this year."