Chelsea sets price for Barcelona target

FC Barcelona are being made to work hard for their transfer targets this summer. They had been planning a raid on Chelsea FC, owing to the club's unstable situation earlier this year. However, now that new owner Todd Boehly has settled in, they are ready to play hardball with the Catalan giants.

Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had his assets frozen as part of the UK Government's sanctions against Russian oligarchs and companies. The club was unable to give their players any guarantees on their futures for many months, which opened the doors for the likes of Barcelona.

The Catalan giants had been keen on signing Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta, but the club managed to find a way to automatically extend his deal thanks to a clause on his contract which got triggered as soon as he played more than 30 games last season. Now, the Blues have decided on the price tag that they want to put over the Spaniard, which Goal reports to be 8 million euros.

Barcelona is unhappy with the asking price, especially since they almost had the opportunity to sign the veteran defender on a free transfer if the extension clause was not triggered. Now, they need to find other ways to convince the Premier League side to lower their price.

Meanwhile, Chelsea remain calm about the situation, even though Azpilicueta is believed to be keen on making the move to the Camp Nou. The Blaugrana want to get the deal over the line before they start their pre-season activities next week, but they will need to come to the negotiating table more aggressively.

Barcelona have so far reached agreements with Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, but they have bigger ambitions. Apart from Azpilicueta, they are hot on the trail of Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski, who is also trying to force his way out of the Bavarian side.