Manchester City lost a chance to win the Premier League for the third consecutive time to Liverpool. The Citizens didn’t sign replacements as Vincent Kompany departed and their star defender Ayemric Laporte was sidelined for the crucial part of the season.
Pep Guardiola took notes and is looking to reinforce his squad. City have already signed Nathan Ake from Bournemouth and are in talks with Napoli’s highly-rated centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.
Despite being heavily linked with Koulibaly for a number of weeks, City appears no closer to getting a deal for the Senegal international over the line.
Fabrizio Romano confirms that the process is painstakingly slow. City are negotiating indirectly with Napoli and Napoli chief Napoli CEO Aurelio De Laurentiis feels frustrated about it.
“Manchester City is saying it can’t talk directly with us because of the problem with Jorginho. How can we then proceed with a serious and serene negotiation for the transfer of a player? Is the reasoning clear?”
Napoli promised that Jorginho will be sold to Man City but ended up selling to Chelsea two years ago.
There have been noises that the Blues are not the only club interested in the 29-year-old defender. Manchester City are willing to take a risk by constantly lowballing the asking price.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Napoli expect Manchester City to submit a new bid for Kalidou Koulibaly next week – around €75m add ons included.
De Laurentiis has been clear about the fact that they are ready to sell Koulibaly and Manchester United have the financial muscle to sign the 29-year-old defender.
With the negotiations between Napoli and Man City taking so much time, Manchester United have a golden opportunity to swoop in and hijack the deal.
Koulibaly will be a statement signing for the Reds as they prepare to bring a center-back to Old Trafford. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set to trim his defensive options this summer with Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, and Phil Jones all allowed to leave. Solskjaer wants some internal competition amongst Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, and Harry Maguire.
