Barcelona 'still hopeful of beating Chelsea to Jules Kounde'

Barcelona have reportedly retained hope of winning the race to sign Sevilla defender Jules Kounde.

Despite their well-documented financial issues, the Catalan giants have made four high-profile additions in the summer transfer window.

Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski will all line up in a Barcelona shirt during the next campaign.

At some stage, Barcelona will need to generate funds through player sales, something that they are attempting to achieve through the sale of Frenkie de Jong.

Nevertheless, according to Marca, the La Liga outfit still have ambitions to make further big-money signings before the end of August.

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The report claims that club officials remain keen to edge out Chelsea in the race to secure the signature of Kounde.

While Chelsea are long-term admirers of the France international, they have not taken advantage of being regarded as the frontrunners for the player.

Although the 23-year-old is said to have a release clause in the region of £69m, Sevilla may be prepared to accept a marginally lower fee for one of their key men.

That would suit Chelsea, who are increasingly eager to sign another centre-back, but any decrease in valuation would only make it more likely that Barcelona will up their own interest.

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The report adds that Xavi is also keen to strengthen his own backline, despite Christensen joining the likes of Ronald Araujo, Eric Garcia and Gerard Pique at his disposal.

Barcelona have also been heavily linked with moves for Chelsea duo Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso, and it is unclear where the Spanish pair would fit into Barcelona's plans if they sign Kounde.

A recent report suggested that Barcelona may attempt to include Memphis Depay in any proposal in a bid to reduce their financial outlay.

Earlier on Monday, it was claimed that the Netherlands international would only consider departing Camp Nou for "an important club", it unclear whether Sevilla would fall into that bracket.