Manchester City made several attempts, via an intermediary, to sign Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli during the last window.
There was a bad relationship between the two clubs following the earlier Jorginho saga, when the midfielder ended up joining Chelsea, and direct contact was therefore avoided.
A bigger problem was Aurelio De Laurentiis’ asking price, with various claims from €70m to €100m. That was all too much for Pep Guardiola’s side, and they instead moved to sign Ruben Dias from Benfica.
They probably won’t be investing hugely in a central defender in the coming months, however, Fabio Santini thinks differently. He’s claimed the Premier League club have ‘relaunched’ for Koulibaly and are offering €60m ahead of the January window.
Those claims are hard to believe, given the Dias purchase.
It could be this is an effort to make De Laurentiis look strong again in the face of pressure. For months there were claims from Italy of an offer worth €100m from Manchester United, and that seemed very much like this City claim does, more about Napoli PR than anything else.
