Manchester City are willing to test Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis’ resolve in regards to their central-defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness) claim that Pep Guardiola’s side would be willing to begin negotiations at £108m – a figure that was said to have been rejected by the Serie A club when Manchester United made contact during the summer.
Things haven’t gone well so far this season for Napoli, although they are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, their league position has left a lot to be desired. They currently sit in 7th place, 8 points behind Cagliari in fourth and face a difficult task qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Would you take Koulibaly at Manchester City?
Yes
No
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If they were able to do a deal in January for the Senegalese international, they would be bringing, arguably, one of the world’s best central-defenders to Manchester and their well-documented problems at the back would be solved. Napoli sacked Carlo Ancelotti on Tuesday evening and have replaced the veteran manager with Gennaro Gattuso.
Gattuso’s record as a manager is mixed and, therefore, the future of the club is somewhat uncertain at the moment. Koulibaly is rumoured to have asked to leave the club and turbulent times could be ahead for the Serie A outfit. Now seems like the perfect time to test the waters regarding the £67.5m-rated (per TransferMarkt) 28-year-old with a view to bringing him to the Etihad Stadium in January.