Chelsea have started the Premier League season in impressive fashion, picking up seven points from their opening three matches.
They backed up a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace with another fine success at Arsenal, where Romelu Lukaku marked his second debut by scoring the opening goal in a 2-0 win.
A determined 1-1 draw against Liverpool followed just before the international break despite playing the whole of the second half with 10 men.
Their transfer business also gained plenty of praise after they signed Saul Niguez on deadline day and Lukaku for around £97.5m earlier in the window.
But one player who didn't end up joining was Jules Kounde, who will stay at Sevilla for the 2021/22 season.
And now the centre-back is reportedly ignoring calls from his manager Julen Lopetegui and director of football Monchi, per the Spanish Football Podcast (h/t the Daily Mirror).
They claim that Kounde is "furious" with Sevilla for snubbing his transfer to Stamford Bridge, as the Blues looked to add more depth in the defensive department.
The La Liga outfit were supposedly demanding a fee of over £68.5m for the 22-year-old and Chelsea didn't end up meeting that valuation, opting to sign Saul instead.
That was despite selling Kurt Zouma to London rivals West Ham United and Fikayo Tomori to AC Milan.
Monchi, Sevilla's director of football, opened up about the Kounde situation and admitted that a host of clubs wanted the Frenchman, with Chelsea the club he wanted to go to.
"Most of [the approaches were] rejected by the player himself but there was a club that he liked, which was Chelsea," he said.
"I spoke to the player’s agent some time ago because the more time that passed, the more difficult it would be for him to leave."
Since Thomas Tuchel was appointed as Chelsea boss in January, no team has had a better defensive record in the Premier League, keeping 14 clean sheets in 21 matches.
Although they boasted that excellent return the Blues still wanted to strengthen their back-line, but according to Monchi,they didn't make an approach until late in the window.
“The first and only formal offer was last Wednesday, around five in the afternoon, with an amount that did not satisfy our desires and conditional on Chelsea selling a player,” he added following the conclusion of the transfer window.
"It was an important offer, considering the current world where there are so many hardships, but it did not meet our demands, conditions, or quantities.
"We responded with a counter-offer with a deadline of last Friday night [the 27th] and they have not responded. Since then, there has been no contact. Chelsea’s formal offer, Sevilla’s formal response, but nothing else."
Chelsea still have a wealth of experience at the back, with Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christiansen all impressing against Liverpool last weekend.
Thiago Silva also came on following Reece James' red card and performed admirably, whilst Trevor Chalobah has broken through into the first-team, scoring in the opening day win against Palace.
