Chelsea

Chelsea

Premier League • England

Chelsea defender receives promise he can leave, as final transfer meeting leads to revision of valuation

Marcos Alonso acknowledging Edouard Mendy

Marcos Alonso has been promised he will get to join Barcelona from Chelsea before the transfer deadline, according to reports in Spain.

Alonso has been pushing for a move from Chelsea to Barcelona this summer. The signing of Marc Cucurella by the Blues has pushed him down the pecking order for the left-back role. Therefore, Barcelona have identified him as a gettable target.

The La Liga side are looking for more competition for Jordi Alba in his position on the left-hand side of defence. In fact, they may even be looking to replace the long-serving Spaniard.

In that regard, Alonso is one of the main remaining targets for Barcelona in what has been a busy summer transfer window. But with just a couple of days remaining in the market, he remains a Chelsea player.

According to AS, though, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has given Alonso his word that he will get to complete his move.

The Barcelona supremo will be doing all in his power to bring the former Real Madrid youth player in within the next 48 hours. There has even been a promise to his entourage that the deal will happen.

If it does go through, Alonso would be reuniting with former Chelsea teammate, Andreas Christensen. The chances of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang transferring in the opposite direction do not get a reference in the write-up from AS.

But it appears the Catalonian club remain very confident of bringing in Alonso. According to AS, Barcelona will also be keeping young left-back Alejandro Balde, despite interest from elsewhere.

It has put Alba at a risky position, especially in a World Cup year. Barcelona’s plan could be to put their faith in Alonso instead, phasing out the former Valencia wide man.

From Alonso’s perspective, though, this could be an exciting new challenge to relish. Despite being Spanish, he has only ever gained one La Liga appearance to his name, which came in the 2009-10 season with Real Madrid.

Soon, he could be lining up for their El Clasico rivals, Barcelona.

Chelsea change parameters of Marcos Alonso transfer

Meanwhile, Sport are claiming that Chelsea have increased their asking price for Alonso. Now, they are hoping to receive between €10million and €12million for him. In English money, that would be between £8.6million and £10.3million.

A final meeting is underway between Alonso’s agent and Barcelona, who will hope to make progress in negotiations with Chelsea.

Sport remind that the Aubameyang operation is being dealt with separately, which should help speed things up for Alonso.

After waiting for a number of weeks, his exit route towards Spain should become clearer in the coming hours.

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