Promised to be coming to an end in the coming days by the player’s agent, the Kalidou Koulibaly saga has taken a surprising turn if Il Mattino are to be believed.
The Napoli based newspaper, who spoke to Bruno Satin earlier this month and confirmed Chelsea as a potential destination for the player, now suggest the player could, in fact, stay at the Serie A club for the coming season.
This, however, doesn’t mean the player will be committing to a long-term future with the club, but more of a stop-gap pay rise until a move can be planned ahead for next summer.
The idea would be for Koulibaly to sign a new deal for the forthcoming season, and then be allowed to leave next year as a thank you for his commitment for the 2016-17 footballing year.
Il Mattino aren’t sure whether this will come in the form of a release clause in the new deal to make things easier or just a verbal agreement with De Laurentiis that if an offer of €40-45m were to arrive on his desk during the summer of 2017, he would be allowed to go.
If all of this is true, a move to Chelsea this year now seems unlikely, with Conte having to look elsewhere for his new centre-back.
That said, we’ll believe it when the contract renewal is official, as Bruno Satin made it very clear in previous interviews his client was no interested in a contract renewal and wanted to leave this year.
