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Kalidou Koulibaly

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
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I know what you mean, but what if the players in those positions are not currently available?

It’s been said multiple times what a clusterfuck we’ve made of our squad building to get us to this point, but it is what it is and we can’t change it. And if the players we might be looking at in those key positions are not attainable until the summer then we shouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get a top level commanding CB now if we can.

Money talks, and if we have 100m or whatever it takes to land Koulibaly (which I think is highly unlikely btw), I think we have money to address DM and one fullback and have some clubs willing to talk to us. Signing Koulibaly has certain echoes of when we signed Popescu all those years ago. We lumped on massively in one area when we needed to spread that money over a few positions, and as a result we remained pretty poor.
 

SpartanSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
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I'm sure when there was talk of Koulibaly being available a while back the mooted price was in the £40-60m bracket (due to the issues with the Napoli chairman), not world record levels. Dragon1 ITK also suggest whilst the price is high it's not as high as been put out in the press. No way Levy pays a WR fee for this guy, regardless of how enamoured he is with Jose.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Money talks, and if we have 100m or whatever it takes to land Koulibaly (which I think is highly unlikely btw), I think we have money to address DM and one fullback and have some clubs willing to talk to us. Signing Koulibaly has certain echoes of when we signed Popescu all those years ago. We lumped on massively in one area when we needed to spread that money over a few positions, and as a result we remained pretty poor.
It's like if Arsenal hadn't inexplicably dropped 100M on both Aubameyang AND Lacazette and had instead just signed one and fixed their midfield and/or defence with the other 50M, they'd almost certainly have pipped us to top 4 last season.
 
D

Deleted member 29446

Made a thread yesterday on him. Deleted right away. Transfer police ? ?‍♀️

Well now finally we can discuss the guy.
 

JCRD

Well-Known Member
Aug 10, 2018
19,153
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If you think about it we do have the money. Weren't we going to drop 70m on Dybala?
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,385
It's like if Arsenal hadn't inexplicably dropped 100M on both Aubameyang AND Lacazette and had instead just signed one and fixed their midfield and/or defence with the other 50M, they'd almost certainly have pipped us to top 4 last season.

Agree. Koulibaly is exactly the type of player Mourinho habitually signs when money has been no object. I'd expect his chin to hit the floor when Levy says 'OK, but that's it for the next 12 months'.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Agree. Koulibaly is exactly the type of player Mourinho habitually signs when money has been no object. I'd expect his chin to hit the floor when Levy says 'OK, but that's it for the next 12 months'.
Yeah and it's also not like we just need to upgrade in 2 or 3 positions. In reality we will probably need at least 5 or 6 signings if we truly want to compete (although admittedly not all at once). In order of importance I'd say we need a DM, RB, CB, LB and probably 2 attacking players: a more technical, goalscoring midfielder like Fernandez and a quicker wide player who can play on the right and replace Lucas.

Not to mention we'll need to upgrade our keeper soon too...
 

Colonel Dax

Well-Known Member
Jul 24, 2008
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12,289
I'm sure when there was talk of Koulibaly being available a while back the mooted price was in the £40-60m bracket (due to the issues with the Napoli chairman), not world record levels. Dragon1 ITK also suggest whilst the price is high it's not as high as been put out in the press. No way Levy pays a WR fee for this guy, regardless of how enamoured he is with Jose.

Agreed. Talk of £80m for Ndombele last summer but we eventually bought him for £55m rising to £63m.
 
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Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Napoli's season is already a write off and De Laurentis has fucked himself over in negotiations by openly stating he wants to sell their star players after their mutiny early in the season. That said, would they sell him in January or would they prefer to set up a bidding war in the summer when presumably more clubs would be interested?
 

rossdapep

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2011
21,904
78,638
Why's everyone getting in a tizzy about money?

I can't imagine Jose has been told "You get big money on one player and then the rest need to be cheap signings" and then agreed to that.

Transfers and budget will have been spoken about in great detail, at the time Jose signed up until today.

I'm pretty sure Levy knows the squad needs more additions and as someone rightly pointed out the club were willing to get Dybala for a high fee.

The way the club balance this is by bringing in young British players who won't cost the earth but could be very valuable assets.
 

Wadec

Well-Known Member
May 14, 2014
1,761
5,434
Why's everyone getting in a tizzy about money?

I can't imagine Jose has been told "You get big money on one player and then the rest need to be cheap signings" and then agreed to that.

Transfers and budget will have been spoken about in great detail, at the time Jose signed up until today.

I'm pretty sure Levy knows the squad needs more additions and as someone rightly pointed out the club were willing to get Dybala for a high fee.

The way the club balance this is by bringing in young British players who won't cost the earth but could be very valuable assets.

This is spot on, no coincidence our links for some players are younger British players (Eze, Ferguson, Bowen) and others are large big fees. Its about balance.

Only one concern I have is that without improving midfield we will struggle whoever's plays defence. Dont see us singing KK and Soumare in Jan so if ITK is right Jose is prioritising CB.
 
D

Deleted member 29446

He's good.



He looks VERY good - perfect LCB replacement for Jan, as he can use both feet.

That guy in the Daily ITK thread saying this guy couldn't pass surely looks bad right now :LOL: some great passes in that video.

He looks like he could transform our defense and be our VVD and have a similar impact.
 
D

Deleted member 27995

I look forward to when we actually place the bid, with real money.
 
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