Xabi Alonso wants a new right-back. Jules Koundé is reportedly open to swapping Camp Nou for Stamford Bridge. In most January windows, that overlap would be enough.
This one has run into Hansi Flick.
Barcelona’s manager has decided against sanctioning a Koundé sale in the winter window. The message relayed through the player’s camp, via Spanish journalist Juan Jesús, is that neither coach nor player is considering a January departure, and that the door at the Camp Nou has not shut on the France international.
Only one LaLiga start this season
That reassurance reaches a 27-year-old who has started just one LaLiga match in the current campaign, with five total appearances across competitions. Koundé has slipped behind Eric García and João Cancelo in Flick’s right-back order, TEAMtalk reports, the kind of bench role that typically precipitates a January move.
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Alonso is counting on exactly that. Chelsea’s manager, who was appointed by Chelsea in May 2026, sees Koundé as a wide centre-back in his 3-4-2-1 system, and FootballTransfers put the defender’s market value at around €58.6m.
Barcelona’s door opens in 2027
What Flick is refusing in January, Barcelona may yet concede six months later. A second strand of reporting says the club has indicated to Koundé’s representatives that a sale is realistic in 2027, when the financial logic lines up with Barcelona’s need to balance the books.
Caught Offside, cited by TEAMtalk, put the position bluntly.
“Barcelona are under pressure to make some sales in January and Kounde is a man on that list.”
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The stance behind the scenes is that Flick’s veto holds this winter, not necessarily next.
Koundé’s contract runs until 2030, which gives Barcelona the leverage to turn down any winter suitor and set its asking price next summer. Chelsea’s interest predates his Spanish move: the Blues came close to signing him from Sevilla before he chose Barcelona in 2022.
Chelsea are not alone
Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United are tracking the same file, according to FootballTransfers, though reports consistently frame Chelsea as the player’s preferred destination. Alonso is also monitoring Malo Gusto’s situation as he weighs how urgently to force the right-back question in January.
Barcelona’s next LaLiga fixture is the Clasico against Real Madrid on 25 October, the first public read on whether Flick’s open door is more than a holding statement.
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