Kalidou Koulibaly scored a 90′ winner for Napoli this weekend against Juventus, setting up a thrilling final month for Serie A. Obviously, with moments like those, he is back in Chelsea’s transfer rumour mill for another summer.
Serie A is the outlier among the “Big Five + 1” European leagues: the title race is still actually a race. While Manchester City, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and PSV Eindhoven are well into the guard of honour stage, Juventus hold only a one point lead on Napoli. Kalidou Koulibaly went high into the air to power a header past Gianluigi Buffon off a 90′ corner to give Napoli a historic win and keep their scudetto hopes alive.
Napoli’s celebrations were barely fading when Koulibaly reappeared in Chelsea’s transfer rumours. The usual suspects reported a transfer fee / release clause in the £60-70 million range.
Chelsea’s previous attempts to sign Koulibaly were among the more embarassing episodes in transfer windows full of such incidents. Choose your animal metaphor: a cat playing with a ball of yarn, throwing chum into the water for shark… that’s how gratuitously and easily Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis played Chelsea. Every time Chelsea showed interest, he would raise the asking price. Every time Chelsea were ready to walk away, he would lower it. And on it went. And Kalidou Koulibaly remains in Naples.
The deal is even less likely to happen now than in years past. Koulibaly is under contract until 2021, so Napoli has little incentive to sell now. He has the most goals (5) of any defender while starting 32 of 34 league games in the back-line of Maurizio Sarri’s 4-3-3. Napoli exited the Champions League in the group stage this season, then bowed out of the Europa League to RB Leipzig. Whether they finish first or second in Serie A this season, their European expectations and ambitions will be substantially higher. And on top of all that, they may lose their manager this summer. They will not be willing to lose a key defender, as well.
All of these factors raise Koulibaly’s value, which Chelsea were never inclined to meet. After the parsimony of the last 18 months, the Blues will not make another club-record signing – particularly not for a defender.
Chelsea also have little need for a centre-back, even one at Koulibaly’s level. The Blues have log-jams in their player pipelines at both ends of the pitch, striker and centre-back. They would need to make room for Koulibaly among their current stable of Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and – yes – Gary Cahill. They would also need to factor in the return of Kurt Zouma and the prospects a year or two later for Matt Miazga, Fikayo Tomori and Jake Clarke-Salter.
Buying Kalidou Koulibaly makes little sense for Chelsea. Attempting to buy him would hold nothing but false hope and humiliation. If the Blues are so inclined to buy a player from Serie A, they should stick to their relationship with AS Roma or find another unheralded star-in-the-making at Fiorentina*.
Next: ANtonio Conte's new roles and tactics hint at his intent for 2018/19
*Or a heralded star-in-the-making like Federico Chiesa, but that’s for another day.