Manchester City may have received a significant boost in the pursuit for the Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
What’s the word?
There has been talk in recent months that the Senegalese colossus could be allowed to leave Naples after six years in Southern Italy.
Koulibaly featured in a reserve team game for his side as their preparations towards the new Serie A campaign got underway yesterday evening.
Should Pep break the bank for Koulibaly?
Yes
No
This seemed like an unusual move for manager Gennaro Gattuso to make seeing as the first-team have relied on the Senegal international defensively in recent years.
Nevertheless, he was involved in a tournament involving amateur club Castel di Sangro from the sixth tier of Italian football, and fourth division L’Aquila.
Napoli’s second string won 10-0, with Koulibaly scoring a stunning overhead kick. But the fact that the defender not being picked for the main team raised a few eyebrows in Italy with City very keen on securing his services this season.
This comes after Koulibably’s asking price was lowered from £80m to £65m, which is still a large fee considering the centre-back turns 30 next year, as per the Mirror.
Sign at all costs
Even though there is a lot of excitement surrounding the possible signing of Lionel Messi. But for me, we need defenders as opposed to strikers.
As I’ve previously said, there is a reason why we fell so far behind Liverpool last season, and it wasn’t due to our attack. We conceded 67 goals and lost nine games, finishing 18 points behind last season’s champions, as per Premier League.
I understand that we have signed Nathan Ake already. But we need someone that can replicate the presence, the physicality and the influence that Vincent Kompany had. Pep Guardiola made a mistake by not replacing him last summer.
So now, he needs to right the wrongs from 12 months ago and sign Koulibably at whatever cost. Now that the price tag has gone down and the fact that he is not being picked for first-team opportunities, it is more important than ever for us to go and get our targets if we are to have any chance of toppling Liverpool this season.