Yesterday’s rumour is about to become reality as Chelsea are finalizing the terms of Marcos Alonso’s transfer to Stamford Bridge. Kalidou Koulibaly wistfully watches a defender arrive at Chelsea, wishing it was him.
Marcos Alonso is finalizing his transfer to Chelsea and will undergo his medical later today. His arrival will set in motion a series of formation shifts that – barring any last-minute transfer heroics – will allow Chelsea to paper over their defensive short-comings.
Alongside the Alonso signing are new rumours that Conte will seek a centre-back on loan, Chelsea having failed to secure recent targets Kalidou Koulibaly or Alessio Romagnoli. No names have cropped up in the incoming loan rumours so far.
must read: Marcos Alonso offers flexibility for Chelsea's backline
The Kalidou Koulibaly saga will go down as either (or both) Chelsea’s greatest failure or Italian football’s greatest act of spite. Koulibaly has made no secret about his desire to leave Napoli. Last month his agent listed Chelsea as one of the teams on Koulibaly’s short-list.
"The desire of the player is to leave the club, not renew… To the fans I say stay calm because he won’t be joining Juventus. Chelsea and Everton are still interested as they are both searching for a central defender of his quality. – Bruno Satin, CalcioMercato"
Notice how ESPN FC frames the story: “Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly has given up hope of joining Chelsea before Wednesday’s transfer deadline.” Koulibaly – not Chelsea – is resigned to this fate. While Chelsea continues to scramble for a solution, Koulibaly remains in Napoli making his peace with events.
Most players are sanguine about their transfer options, recognizing that they are nearly widgets in the global football industry. Koulibaly actively wanted to leave, and openly wanted to join Chelsea. His club stymied his desires on both counts. And for what?
Napoli’s club president Aurelio de Laurentiis has been equally bitter at Koulibaly and Chelsea alike from the outset. In early June, de Laurentiis accused Chelsea of tapping-up Koulibaly. Rather than accept that one of his star players was unhappy at Napoli, de Laurentiis saw the Blue hand of Chelsea orchestrating a back-alley deal.
De Laurentiis has rejected a series of Chelsea bids, each time raising his “minimum” acceptable transfer fee. In late May, Chelsea bid £23 million. By late June, after the tapping-up accusation, de Laurentiis raised the floor to £30 million. Once the transfer window opened, the rumoured price went from £34 million to £38 million to £43 million.
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The price tag now sits at a truly asinine £60 million. That is not a price set by valuation or anything resembling a market. That is the price of one man’s spite.
No one is winning this power play. Chelsea are still without a strong centre-back and will rely on temporary solutions. Napoli and de Laurentiis are stuck with a player who really doesn’t want to be there (although, to be fair, Chelsea have that as well). And Kalidou Koulibaly is not where he wants to be, working for management for whom he can have little respect, let alone affinity.
Chelsea fans rightly criticize Michael Emenalo’s aimless use of the loan system and dithering in the transfer market. But few attribute Chelsea’s loan and transfer non-strategy to any sort of ill-will. The club may be incompetent, but at least they’re not bad people! How’s that for damning with the faintest of praise?
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Napoli does not have that excuse. De Laurentiis is directing his staff via a policy of spite, pique and petty vengeance. He may find that the only thing harder to retaining his existing players is finding anyone who wants to join such a dysfunctional set-up.