Transfer Talk – Kalidou Koulibaly

Everton will try again to sign Kalidou Koulibaly according to reports in Italy.

Farhad Moshiri confirmed Everton tried to sign Koulibaly in the summer: “We tried to buy [Kalidou] Koulibaly of Napoli and they wanted £60m. It is monopoly money. We went right to the asking price and they decided not to sell”

Reports claim that the contract the 25-year-old centre-back signed in September last year has a release clause of £49m – with Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis recently quoted as saying “we’ll get over it” if someone pays Koulibaly’s release clause.

The defender’s agent Bruno Satin told a local Naples radio station: “Chelsea were interested but then they signed David Luiz and you also have John Terry and Gary Cahill at the club so there is a lot of competition there.

“We will see what happens. A lot of the improvements that Koulibaly has made in his game have been down to the coaching of Maurizio Sarri.

Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis confirmed in an interview with beIN Sports that Chelsea tried to sign the defender: “Chelsea had offered €55m, but I told Conte that I could not give him up without first having a worthy substitute”