Barca shift focus from attempting to hijack prime Chelsea target

Barcelona to prioritise signing Robert Lewandowski over Chelsea target Raphinha

After months and months of uncertainty on Jules Kounde, it seems like Chelsea fans have a new name to be anxious on. Leeds United accepted a £60m offer from Chelsea for their coveted star Raphinha, and it really should have been straight-forward from that point, or so we thought. 

Barcelona, who have reportedly agreed personal terms with Raphinha four months ago, are now attempting a late steal. However, owing to their financial woes, they can’t really control the situation like they would want to. 

According to Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona contacted Leeds last night to submit a new bid for Raphinha. However, the West Yorkshire club are insisting on respecting their agreement with Chelsea. 

According to Absolute Chelsea via The Telegraph’s Matt Law (h/t football.london), Barcelona still considers Bayern Munich talisman Robert Lewandowski to be their numero uno target for the summer. 

Any deal for the defending FIFA World Player of the Year is likely to amount to an enormous total and given the precarious position that Barca find themselves in financially, the Catalan side have to compromise other targets to fund a move for Lewandowski. 

In which case, Barcelona may be prepared to see the bigger picture and let Raphinha slide for the time being. However, we can’t say for certain until Raphinha officially signs a Chelsea contract. 

Don’t let this drag on

The last thing Chelsea need is to waste valuable days on a player that may or may not join. It looks like we are not far away from the point where Chelsea set a deadline for Raphinha to respond. 

Chelsea have just swallowed a bitter pill worth £97.5m by loaning Romelu Lukaku back to Inter Milan, so the Blues will definitely start asking questions if Raphinha lets this drag on for too long. 

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Is it really worth investing that kind of money on a player who has made it very clear what his actual priority is? Raphinha will be a fantastic acquisition, but not at the price of Chelsea being a backup option to the Brazilian’s Plan A. 

We can expect a clearer picture in the next couple of days or maybe even earlier but one thing’s for sure – whatever be the outcome, Chelsea will demand quick answers from both Raphinha and his agent, Deco. There’s plenty of other business to conduct.