This summer, Sevilla rejected Chelsea’s £42.5 million bid for their star defender Jules Kounde even though the transfer fee would have erased their debts.
Chelsea were unwilling to match his release clause upwards of £60 million, and offered Sevilla an alternative price instead. But the La Liga side refused to sell their defender to the European Champions and Kounde continues to show his defensive capabilities at Sevilla.
Here is what the club’s president, Joe Castro had to say about the entire issue:
‘We are the second team with the highest salary cap capacity.
‘Nobody can escape the fact we are coming out of a pandemic and this year there was no choice but to give a negative financial result.
‘There has been no income from season tickets, match tickets or bars. Marketing and television revenues have suffered.
‘Even so, with Chelsea’s offer of €50million, the deficit was wiped out. That speaks of the strength of the club.
‘I don’t know how many teams in Spain would say ‘no’ to Chelsea’s €50m and maintain this deficit, considering that the squad is worth €400m [£340m].
‘The deficit comes from the pandemic, but also from choosing to build a stronger squad rather than sell in the last two markets.
‘That’s called ambition and sometimes to have ambition you have to have a deficit. It’s OK.’
Kounde was originally very angry at the transfer not going through but has now shown that he is committed to winning with Sevilla.
