Despite their best efforts to sign the Napoli defender last summer, Chelsea’s transfer hunt to bring Kalidou Koulibaly to Stamford Bridge ended in failure, opting for David Luiz instead, a move which has very much paid off.
However, over the past couple of weeks, talk of Antonio Conte returning for the Senegales defender has starting appearing more and more, with TuttoMercatoWeb explaining so last Wednesday.
They claimed an offer of €55m for Koulibaly would be enough to convince Napoli to let their star defender go, and now Il Mattino, Naples’ local paper, have joined the fray, reporting something similar.
Looking at who the Serie A side could be interested in buying over the course of the summer transfer window, which includes the likes of Lazio’s Keita Baldé and Genoa’s Mattia Perin, the newspaper warn their readers Aurelio de Laurentiis would ‘find it hard to say no’ were Chelsea to offer €50-60m for Koulibaly.
This is a change from the stance taken last August, as, wanting his team to remain competitive and build on last season, the Napoli owner revealed he had rejected a Chelsea offer of ‘more than €50m’ for his prized asset.
Having signed Lorenzo Tonelli and Nikola Maksimovic last summer, and allowed them to settle in nicely, the Naples based club are now in better shape to let Koulibaly go for a big fee; money that would grant them the ability to bolster elsewhere as they continue to try and catch up with Juventus.
