Barcelona president remains coy on Chelsea duo Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso
Speaking in an interview to @CBSSportsGolazo as quoted by popular Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona president Joan Laporta remained coy on the Spanish club’s pursuit of Chelsea defensive duo Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.
Both Alonso and Azpilicueta have been continually linked with a move to Barcelona ahead of the current season but a deal to the Spanish club for both Blues defenders has not materialised at least as things stand now.
Barcelona are still very much in the reckoning for both these players, especially Cesar Azpilicueta and will not give up any time soon. However, there is a chance that the Blues might not want to sell to the Spanish club after all.
The Spanish giants have beaten Chelsea to signing both Raphinha and Jules Kounde, two players we had an agreement with only to see it hijacked at the very last moment and we will not want to do any favours to them.
Whilst Marcos Alonso could be considered a little bit more of an expendable asset due to the options we have in that position, losing our club captain Azpilicueta is not something we want especially in a season with so much uncertainty over the defence.
Despite losing Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger in the summer, we have managed to sign only Kalidou Koulibaly as an option for central defence. Our pursuits of both Matthijs de Ligt and Jules Kounde turned out to be futile.
Chelsea will know that they cannot rest. The defence is still extremely fragile. The Senegalese defender is expected to slot into one of the centre-back roles but Thiago Silva is not getting any younger and Trevoh Chalobah is still unproven.
The Blues will know that they cannot be deterred by the failed pursuits of those two central defenders and will have to look at other alternatives. Without doing that, it is highly unlikely that they will sell Azpilicueta.
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There is no doubt that the Spaniard is a legend of this club. He deserves to leave on his own terms but considering the exceptional situation we find ourselves in, it will be of no surprise if the club turns to our captain and asks him to help us out by not leaving this summer.
It remains to be seen what the future holds for both Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta. The duo could find themselves playing together again the coming season but we are not sure if it will be at Camp Nou or Stamford Bridge.