Chelsea have met Napoli’s €50 million asking price for centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly but the Italian club have rejected the offer anyway, according to reports from Italy.
Gazzetta dello Sport‘s Carlo Laudisa has Tweeted that last season’s Serie A runners-up have rejected the offer after failing to secure a replacement in Torino’s Nikola Maksimović.
Il #Chelsea ha offerto €50 mln per #Koulibaly ma il #Napoli chiude. Anche perché il #Torino ha rifiutato €25 mln per #Maksimovic
— Carlo Laudisa (@carlolaudisa) August 8, 2016
We reported earlier in the week that Chelsea had made a considerable offer for the defender.
The Premier League side have previously been asked to match Napoli’s valuations of €30 and €40 million for the 25-year-old. Shall we guess what price president Aurelio Di Laurentiis is going to raise the asking price to next?
Antonio Conte is certainly keen to bring in a new centre-back before the start of the new Premier League season, or at least before the end of the summer’s transfer window. They have also been linked with moves for Benfica’s Victor Lindelöf and Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi. Will the Italian tactician switch his priority to one of these now?
The Blues are certainly leaving it late to bring in a new centre-back. They face West Ham in the opening game of the 2016-17 season on Monday night.
Conte currently has John Terry, Kurt Zouma, Gary Cahill and Matt Miazga as out-and-out centre-backs on his books, whilst Branislav Ivanović also has experience in that position.
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