Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Chelsea did try to sign Jules Kounde in the summer transfer window.
The Blues were linked with the Sevilla centre-back throughout August and stepped up their efforts to sign him towards the end of the month.
Chelsea thought a bid of £42.8m would be sufficient to prise the central defender away from the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Chelsea were then told they must trigger Kounde's release clause, which stands at £68m, to sign the France international.
"It was clear we tried for Kounde and Saul and it was very, very late but it was a very, very smooth transfer window because I had full concentration on training and on my team," Tuchel said.
"The amount of support of (technical and performance advisor) Petr Cech as a link, and together with Marina [Granovskaia, Chelsea director], was fantastic, so it was pretty relaxed with a good outcome because in the end it was possible to add Saul into the group, which was a key position for us to have more alternatives and to not put all the pressure on the three guys' shoulders.
"So there's a lot of competition now going on and it's my job to be a good moderator."
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