Chelsea are said to have offered Barcelona £59million plus Marcos Alonso in a bid to secure Frenkie de Jong.
Alonso has one year left on his contract with Thomas Tuchel’s side and appears to be third in the pecking order.
Chelsea completed the signing of Alonso’s compatriot Marc Cucurella from Brighton & Hove Albion on Friday, with the 24-year-old set to compete for left-wing back responsibilities alongside Ben Chilwell.
As a result, Alonso appears to be on the verge of leaving Chelsea, who will pay a nominal fee for the 31-year-old this summer rather than letting him leave for free in 2023.
According to a recent report, Alonso has already said his goodbyes to Chelsea’s training ground staff in preparation for a move to Barcelona, but the structure of the deal might still be considerably changed.
Sport reports that Chelsea is exploring the possibility of swapping De Jong for Alonso and paying an additional €70m (£59.1m) for his services.
De Jong’s future is still up in the air, with Manchester United refusing to give up on Erik ten Hag’s former Ajax prodigy despite striking a £72m deal with Barcelona.
De Jong, on the other hand, has remained firm in his stance that he wants to stay on the books at Barcelona, who owe him up to £14m in unpaid wages, which is another reason for his choice to reject Man United’s offers.
According to reports, Chelsea is confident that they can finalise a deal for De Jong, who would be able to compete in the Champions League at Stamford Bridge rather than the Europa League at Old Trafford.
De Jong has been named to Barcelona’s team for their forthcoming Joan Gamper Trophy match against Pumas and Chelsea are fighting an uphill struggle to convince him to quit.
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