Chelsea: Alex Telles, Kalidou Koulibaly near 10 total years in rumor mill

Chelsea’s kits for Sunday’s FA Cup tie aren’t the only throwback this week. Kalidou Koulibaly and Alex Telles are back in Chelsea’s rumour mill, where they have spent plenty of time since 2016.

Have I really been doing this for that long? Yes, but as it happens, Alex Telles has been linked to Chelsea for even longer than that.

Telles has been in the Blues’ transfer rumours since at least 2015 when he was at Galatasaray, well before anyone in the Premier League thought that left wing-backs would become one of the most sought-after positions in the transfer market. Telles came back into the mix in the middle of the 2017/18 season when Marcos Alonso went into his first sustained lull. Instead of buying Telles, Chelsea bought the then-injured Emerson who never came close to challenging Marcos Alonso at left wing-back; but has since proven a sturdy competitor for Alonso for the honour of sitting the bench while Cesar Azpilicueta starts at left back.

But at least the Telles saga is ultimately benign. He goes about his business and so do the Blues, with neither party perhaps being aware of the other’s putative interest.

Through no fault of his own, though, Kalidou Koulibaly represents one of the early episodes of malfeasance Napoli perpetrated on Chelsea.

Well before Napoli took advantage of a Chelsea board desperate to curry favour with a loudly ignorant portion of their digital fanbase by unloading Maurizio Sarri to Stamford Bridge while taking advantage of Sarri’s one-dimensional desperation to extort £57 million for Jorginho, Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis played the ol’ Lucy-and-the-football routine with Kalidou Koulibaly.

The Koulibaly rumours spanned the entirety of Antonio Conte’s tenure. Koulibaly was apparently on the verge of being a deadline day signing in August of 2016. Instead, the deadline day centreback signing was…………… David Luiz.

As if that in itself was not enough of an insult, over the next few months, the story emerged that every time Chelsea matched Napoli’s asking price, de Laurentiis would add £10 million or so. For whatever reason, Chelsea were willing to continue being the mouse in this little game and continued to pursue Koulibaly for the next few transfer windows.

Ironically, the Koulibaly rumours cooled a bit when Maurizio Sarri and Jorginho arrived. There was some talk that Sarri was interested in adding Koulibaly to the west London chapter of Napoli alumni, but de Laurentiis likely had his fill of dealing with the Blues and didn’t see any more advantage to be gained from toying with them. At least at that juncture.

Now, though, the Blues are back looking for a centreback and Koulibaly is in the rumour mill. De Laurentiis and / or whoever starts these rumours have maintained a steady rate of inflation, and now Koulibaly’s supposed fee is somewhere around £80 million.

Chelsea should not do any business with Napoli as long as de Laurentiis is in charge there. The only two outcomes will be Chelsea grossly overpay or they end up making a deadline day desperation signing when de Laurentiis pulls the rug out on deadline day minus one.

Even if de Laurentiis was an honest broker and £80 million was a reasonable market value, the Blues should not be spending over half of the Eden Hazard money on a 29-year old player.

That amount should only be used on a proven player entering his prime, not a player moving out of his prime years. If nothing else, the Blues should stay in touch with their hard-nose financial sense and consider the sell-on value. An £80 million 29-year old has none, which means if he does not deliver a shelf full of trophies, the deal is barely worth it.

Alex Telles is now about as old as Marcos Alonso was when he joined the Blues. Telles is still in his prime years, but anyone interested in him should ask themselves why they seem to be on an island with that interest. Nothing against Porto, but if he was the player Chelsea thought he was and the player they think they need, other clubs of their level or greater would be pursuing him. From the outside, it looks like he would be a replacement for Marcos Alonso at a time when the Blues are looking for a significant improvement.

For different reasons, both players’ appeal has dropped since their first appearances in the transfer mill. These rumours are probably among the least substantial of those floating around, and that’s saying something. Nothing about Frank Lampard’s tenure or the recent approach to doing business indicates any interest in rehashing old pursuits.

But the only way to know is to wait and see what actually pans out. We highly recommend this site for the most reliable transfer news and updates, so check back there periodically to see what has actually happened.