NAPOLI owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has warned Manchester United and Liverpool they must offer at least £100MILLION if they want to sign Kalidou Koulibaly this month.
Both clubs have been strongly linked with the Senegal centre-back, 29, in recent seasons.
But with both clubs keen on a new defender – for very different reasons – De Laurentiis has decided to put his foot down.
Liverpool are desperate for centre-back reinforcements after Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez suffered long-term injuries, with Dejan Lovren sold last summer and Joel Matip also picking up a series of knocks.
And Man Utd want to find a long-term partner for Harry Maguire.
Manchester City had also been interested last summer, but instead signed Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias for a combined £105.5m.
⚽ Read our Man United live blog for the latest news from Old Trafford
Now well into another transfer window, Jim White spoke to Napoli owner De Laurentiis about the prospect of another series of maddeningly low bids from the Premier League.
Speaking on talkSPORT, White revealed: “There isn’t a window in the last two, three or four that we don’t see big mentions of the Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
“This morning, I spoke to Aurelio De Laurentiis, the Napoli owner, and said what about your player, are there bids in for him?
“He laughed it off saying he’s not for sale.
FANCY A PUNT? CLAIM £40 IN FREE BETS BY BETTING £10
“It seems on this occasion Koulibaly is going nowhere.
"He stays and that was as recent as this morning.
"Anyone going in with anything other than £100million for Koulibaly can forget it.”
"He’s absolutely not for sale unless one of the big clubs in England come up with £100million."
Koulibaly has played in 18 games in all competitions for Napoli this season, helping to keep seven clean sheets.
He is under contract at the Serie A giants until the end of the 2022-23 season.
De Laurentiis also revealed Liverpool's interest in Nikola Maksimovic has cooled of late.
The Reds were tipped with a move for the Serbian, 29, this month to fill the void left by Van Dijk and Gomez.
But De Laurentiis revealed Liverpool have gone quiet in recent weeks.
White continued: “[De Laurentiis] said to me ‘I thought you were going to refer to our defender Nikola Maksimovic and Liverpool’s previous interest in him’.
“So I said ‘are Liverpool still interested in your defender?’
"He interrupted me to say of course with injury problems to Gomez and Van Dijk but no they haven’t heard from them of late."
Source: Read Full Article