I'm confused, they know that an €80m bid would be accepted so why not bid and just wait it out like United have? If they're certain he wants to come then they'd have no worries about bidding and waiting.
Seems to me like it's an excuse as to why a bid hasn't gone in yet, and if one hasn't gone in within the next week, he'll still throw out they're waiting for a yes. If Chelsea wanted him, they'll bid whenever.
Well, probably because they're not certain he wants to come and don't want to get burned like they did a couple of times already this summer (Raphinha, Kounde).
I think it's fairly obvious what's going on. United made a bid hoping ETH connection will convince the player to sign, Barca accepted it because they see FDJ as expendable, while the incoming fee and saying goodbye to his massive wages helps them massively in their current precarious financial situation. The player's camp continued to insist that he wants to stay put. Whether it was down to him and his girlfriend settled there, not wanting to forego the wages owed to him, not being partcularly happy about the prospect of joining MU or all of the above, we don't know, but it's clear that for about a month now the bid's been accepted but the player hasn't moved. My bet would be on the owed wages being the sticking point, they're still looking to find some sort of compromise and it may take the rest of the window to get it done.
The Chelsea links seem to be legit. At first I was sure it was Barca trying to put pressure on United, maybe try to convince them to somehow compensate FDJ out of their own pocket to speed up the deal and use Chelsea's supposed interest to force their hand. But lately several sources confirmed that Chelsea are indeed interested but unlike MU they want to get a yes from the player before making a bid. I think it's the right approach after a few shambolic transfers that we missed out on recently and Boehly probably doesn't want the club to be used as either FDJ's desire to get better deal from Barca or United, or for Barca to turn it into an auction. There's always a chance you're going to get used anyway and end up with nothing but at least you'll know you you did all you could to get the player you wanted.