Man City are reportedly still keen on Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, but the two clubs are still a fair distance off from agreeing on a valuation of the player.
The Premier League giants have already splashed out on Nathan Ake this summer, but with Pep Guardiola publicly revealing that Eric Garcia won’t be extending his contract, another change in defence could be needed.
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City conceded just 23 league goals the season before last as they lifted the Premier League trophy, while in contrast, they let in 35 this past season having struggled after the departure of Vincent Kompany and amid injury problems for Aymeric Laporte.
In turn, shoring things up at the back surely has to be a priority for Guardiola and the club, and it seems as though they have a world-class player heading up their list of transfer targets to solve that issue.
However, as noted by Calciomercato, via the paper edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport, there is still plenty of work to be done for the two clubs to reach an agreement on a transfer fee. While Man City don’t want to spend more than €65m, Napoli are still asking for €90m.
With that in mind, that’s still a significant gap between the two valuations and so it will surely take a drastic shift in position from one to make up that ground and find an agreement.
Koulibaly has established himself as a one of the best centre-halves in Europe given his form for Napoli in recent years, and his physicality, pace and reading of the game would arguably make him a perfect fit for the Premier League.
Nevertheless, regardless of how interested Man City are in the Senegalese international, they must seemingly stump up the cash if they wish to convince Napoli to green light an exit this summer.