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.
Il Mattino report the player seems to have put his ‘battle axe’ down, at least for the time being, and, while the club are yet to confirm it, a new contract could be on its way for the Senegalese defender.
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.
