Italian outlet Area Napoli today features a story where they basically go out in defence of club president Aurelio De Laurentiis, who fights hard to keep players at the Serie A side.
The reason for that is the permanence of Kalidou Koulibaly, who’s been linked to several European giants for the past few years, including Manchester United.
The website explains today that the Red Devils made a bid of €108m to sign the defender, and offered him a salary of €8m per year.
They don’t make it clear when this proposal was done, but in any case, that was apparently already turned down and ‘forced’ De Laurentiis to overpay the 29-year-old.
Area Napoli claims that the Italian club now spend €13m on Koulibaly’s wages, which are reduced to €8.5m after tax.
The website points out that De Laurentiis is frequently criticised for not making strong investments in signings, and explains that the president prefers to pay big salaries so players won’t force their way out.
Now if Manchester United really had a €108m offer turned down, that’s certainly a huge decision taken by the Napoli boss.
