Kalidou Koulibaly

[@BluePhil8]

Struggling to keep a track of what Napoli are willing to accept. The reported fee seems to yoyo every day.

I think ADL will hold out for €90m for as long as possible but I don't think anyone's going to pay it and then they'll end up accepting the best offer. Napoli know he's going to depreciate very quickly.

I don’t think they’ll accept less - that goes against the evidence. I can’t believe we haven’t learned our lesson from the Cavani fiasco when he described our £40m plus offer as ‘laughable’ in public. The guys a dick, we’d be better off dealing with a club like Benfica for Dias and paying a lot but having it done in a professional, quick manner.

 

[Gabriel]

Lads, Upamecano have barely been tested against top forwards. Diego Costa and Llorente is hardly world class attackers. We have no idea.

12 month ago, Koulibaly took care of Salah, Mané and Firmino with ease. Who says he can’t do that anymore? And based on what?

New and shining means less whining.

My only fear for Koulibaly is the unrealistic weight of expectation that will be placed on him by our support. Doesn’t feature immediately: why is our most expensive signing not starting? Makes a mistake: why did we buy him and not X or Y? He picks up an injury: Why did we sign someone ‘so old’? A read through of the pages on this thread reveals a large number of ‘told you so’ comments in waiting. Not a criticism, we’re all entitled to our opinions, but we should all recognize that our prejudices and fears don’t evaporate the moment a player pulls on our club’s jersey. Took Mahrez nearly an entire season to be accepted by most, but Koulibaly looks like he is going to have an even harder job already.
And he hasn’t even signed. :-)

 

[dcye]

Mahrez didn't make it easy for himself by skying that Anfield penalty haha

 

[Semper aggressus]

All these different centre backs being bandied around and the differing opinions on who would be best shows just how difficult it must be for us to get this signing right. Whoever we sign there will no doubt be fans on his back after a mistake or two, particularly if he's expensive.

For me, the price should be irrelevant, the player doesn't set that. We need to buy whoever Pep wants, not worry about agent's fees or clubs valuations. In hindsight we made a huge mistake not paying whatever it took to get van Dijk to change his mind about the scousers (money always talks if there's enough of it). Hopefully we learn from that and stop fucking about hoping second rate/average players can somehow replace Vinny; they can't. We need to just go out and buy the very best centre back available this summer, whoever Pep decides that is.

 

[Gabriel]

I don’t think they’ll accept less - that goes against the evidence. I can’t believe we haven’t learned our lesson from the Cavani fiasco when he described our £40m plus offer as ‘laughable’ in public. The guys a dick, we’d be better off dealing with a club like Benfica for Dias and paying a lot but having it done in a professional, quick manner.

That’s why it is important to make a deal with them that is satisfactory for both clubs. We’ve been interested in Cavani, Jorginho, and Koulibaly, and we’d probably have been interested in Ghoulam, too, had injury not been so cruel, so we evidently like what they produce.

Importantly, Napoli are changing direction and are now intent on making themselves the equivalent of Dortmund in Serie A; they recognize they cannot compete financially with Juventus and Internazionale, and the Rome teams also have a march on Napoli as well. That is why you can expect them to sign lots of young players in future windows, but with an eye to developing them and selling them much earlier, oh yes, and at top dollar. They recognize that they should have sold Koulibaly last season but failed to see their cycle had run full circle, which is why they need to sell him for so much less.

If we screw them in this deal, it might give us a slight taste of revenge, but it might not be to our advantage when we fancy their players in the future.

 

[ctid1894]

Mahrez didn't make it easy for himself by skying that Anfield penalty haha

Mahrez didn't make it easy for himself by not matching the work rate of the rest of his team off the ball, by not playing as part of the team but as an individual and to some extent trying too hard to show how good he was with the spectacular. He's thankfully reigned that in now to a degree, he's still not perfect by any stretch but he's not standing out for the wrong reasons as much anymore and is still producing some brilliant moments.

All we as fans expect is hard work and someone who puts the team first.

 

[Keeper!]

New and shining means less whining.

My only fear for Koulibaly is the unrealistic weight of expectation that will be placed on him by our support. Doesn’t feature immediately: why is our most expensive signing not starting? Makes a mistake: why did we buy him and not X or Y? He picks up an injury: Why did we sign someone ‘so old’? A read through of the pages on this thread reveals a large number of ‘told you so’ comments in waiting. Not a criticism, we’re all entitled to our opinions, but we should all recognize that our prejudices and fears don’t evaporate the moment a player pulls on our club’s jersey. Took Mahrez nearly an entire season to be accepted by most, but Koulibaly looks like he is going to have an even harder job already.
And he hasn’t even signed. :-)

Same applies to most of our signings, Sterling and Mahrez don't score for a couple of games and people want them sold.

 

[Gabriel]

Same applies to most of our signings, Sterling and Mahrez don't score for a couple of games and people want them sold.

True, attackers are always under pressure to convert as quickly as possible.

Koulibaly will be under even more pressure because of his age and the fact that he’s coming from abroad, which means he will inevitably take time to settle. By comparison, Ake’s reported fee is high yet his age and familiarity mean that our collective expectations of him will be lower.

 

[blueparrot]

Don't even try and keep track of ADL. This will go on non-stop every day for a month

My advice would be more don't try and keep track of what people on twitter guess/ make up.

 

[skyblues]

The irony here is we are screaming for Upamecano or world-class Koulibaly to join the club to partner Laporte, yet everyone is forgetting about newly signed Aké.
Aké never had alcohol in his whole life and his only focus has been to develop his game as a defender. Aké could in fact turn out world-class as he joins a top club for the first time in his career.

A very interesting read comparing him to the worlds best:

Why Nathan Aké Is One Of The Most Underrated Central-Defenders Out There

In this article I will be comparing Nathan Aké with some of the best center-backs in world football and then see how he compares to our current options at the back. There will be a lot of statistic…

allthingschelsea.blog

A bit off the topic, but still!