It’s all about Kalidou Koulibaly on Tuesday, with four newspapers dedicating some of their printer ink on the Senegalese defender and Manchester City’s interest in him.
We’ll go through them methodically, just so you don’t miss out on anything, starting with Gazzetta dello Sport.
The national newspaper start off by saying something we’re all thinking when it comes to this saga: ‘you run the risk of getting lost in the confusion that is being generated these days’.
It’s true things have changed on a daily basis when it comes to Manchester City’s attempts to sign the centre-back, but now ‘everything revolves around the directive given by Aurelio De Laurentiis: we must give in’.
The problem is, Napoli will only do so at a certain price, which Gazzetta have at €75m.
Manchester City, down their end, ‘could increase their offer to €70m’ and ‘it’s difficult to imagine they can go beyond this figure’.
But, and it’s a big one, Gazzetta are positive, because ‘the impression is that the issue could be unlocked in a short time’ thanks to Fali Ramadani who is ‘mediating between the parties and is convinced the solution to the problem is close’.
How isn’t said, but our guess is a few bonuses here and there could be enough to change De Laurentiis’ mind.
Over at Corriere dello Sport, the figures are a bit different, believing Napoli want €70m + €10m in bonuses, while Manchester City, who refuse to talk directly with the Italians following the Jorginho debacle, ‘do not go beyond €50m + €10m in bonuses’.
Now, we go a bit more local, starting with Il Mattino, who explain Ramadani is attempting to be the peacemaker in the situation, ‘trying to convince the British team to leave for Capri, putting aside their whims regarding Jorginho’.
If he can’t do that, ‘it’s likely the agent will at least manage to get a written offer sent for Koulibaly’, who has ‘in his hands a four-year £8.5m/year monster contract with City’.
It’s a proposal that has made the centre-back ‘wobble’, but without ‘€90m on the table’, the player ‘stays in Naples’.
As for Corriere del Mezzogiorno, they don’t have all that much detail, merely stating ‘talks with Ramadani are constant’ and Manchester City are ‘expected’ to relaunch their attempts in the new future.
So, all in all, there’s different information floating around, but the bottom line is the Premier League club are yet to make an offer Napoli are happy with.
That being said, the general consensus is they’re not done quite yet and a new move is expected.
