It doesn’t matter how many times Aurelio de Laurentiis and Napoli state Kalidou Koulibaly isn’t for sale, someone, somewhere, will publish a story about a Premier League club wanting the Senegalese defender.
On Tuesday, it was Liverpool’s turn to be linked with the centre-back, although the Serie A club’s reported asking price of €110-120m quickly put an end to that.
Wednesday, on the other hand, brings Manchester City back to the fore, as Gazzetta dello Sport explain the Premier League champions are ‘ready to make Napoli’s pulse rise with a super offer’ of €95m.
Apparently, the idea of this amount of money landing on Aurelio de Laurentiis’ table is ‘creating apprehension’ as a sum of that magnitude for a centre-back isn’t to be ignored.
The €95m could help Napoli bolster in other areas, but there has yet to be word of where the club’s chairman stands on the matter, known for being rather stubborn (or strong-willed, depending on how you want to look at it) in these situations.
The real fear seems to come from how Koulibaly himself would react to the chance of working under Pep Guardiola, as we all know the Manchester City manager is a huge draw for many players.
No offer has actually been made, let’s make that clear, and it isn’t the first time the Cityzens have “readied a bid” only for nothing to come of it.
In fact, getting all the money together and sitting on it without ever making a move is something Premier League clubs seem to be particularly good at if you think about it.
Weird, that.
