Chelsea are preparing to break the bank to sign Napoli‘s Kalidou Koulibaly with Antonio Conte ready to splash a record £60 million on the defender.
Conte is very keen to strengthen his back-line and Koulibaly has been linked with a move to the Blues for much of the summer, with the Senegalese centre- back thought to be the club’s main defensive target.
While Napoli have been reluctant to do business with the Premier League side over the 25-year-old Chelsea are now ready to force the Italian club’s hand with the Telegraph indicating that they are prepared to offer £60 million.
The report says that Chelsea officials made an offer of £48m for the powerful enforcer but privately they are ready to go much higher to make the Serie A side part ways with Koulibaly.
Should a deal go through for the £60m Chelsea are ready to go up to then Koulibaly will not only become Chelsea’s record signing, surpassing the £50m they spent on Fernando Torres, but he will also be the most expensive defender in history.
Furthermore, the newspaper reports that if the 25-year-old joins, it will raise questions for the future of Gary Cahill. The England international had a poor Euro 2016 and the Telegraph report that Kurt Zouma is rated above him at Stamford Bridge.
The amount surpasses the £50m paid by PSG to the Blues for David Luiz in 2014 and also the £47.5m Manchester City initially gave to Everton for John Stones last week.
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