Napoli deal can open revolving door for Reds target
Has the revolving door been opened for Liverpool to sign target Kalidou Koulibaly after Napoli picked up Konstantinos Manolas from Roma?
The Reds have been linked with Koulibaly, and after his team secured the deal to bring Manolas to Naples the revolving door of transfers could have been praised open.
Napoli have already splashed out a fair bit this summer as Monolas joins new signings Alex Meret (£19.80 million), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (£7.20 million), David Ospina (£3.15 million) and Orestis Karnezis (£2.25 million) at the club.
That brings the Serie A side’s spending to over £60 million for the summer, and you have a sneaky feeling that they’ll want to balance the books somehow. Step forward Koulibaly, who is worth a handy £67.50 million.
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We’ve seen events like this before, especially during the summer transfer window. There’s a queue of deals waiting to be done that eventually lead to one big money move, and Manolas coming from Roma for big money smells of a replacement being sorted out before a big move happens.
And looking down the squad list, the only one who could really depart for much is Koulibaly is Nikola Maksimovic – but he only played 17 times in Serie A and is worth half the amount of the Senegal international.
There’s no doubt Koulibaly would improve the side. His defensive quality and quantity are both around 80, according to Smarter Scout.
With 75 link up passing in the Champions League and 57 in Serie A, the defender would be able to slot in to Jurgen Klopp’s style of play. The 28-year-old carries around a hefty 89kg rig as well, and he’s be able to add serious power to the defensive line.
This is all well and good, but there’s only one problem with the speculation: you’d doubt that Liverpool are actually going to make a move for the player.
Next. Four relegated players Jurgen Klopp should sign. dark
But if they wanted to give that revolving door a push, they might like what they see on the other side.