Everton linked with Man Utd target

In one of the surprise transfer stories of the day, Everton have been linked with a move for Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly.

The Senegalese international has been a rock for the Serie A club for the past five-and-a-half seasons, and has been linked to a number of top clubs around Europe, including Manchester United.

 It had been reported at the end of March that we could do a £72 million deal with the Naples club, though rumours have died down over the past two months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Koulibaly remains one of the top centre-backs in world football and could ask to leave Napoli this summer should they miss out on Champions League football next season, currently sitting nine points outside of the top four places and having played a game extra than Atalanta in fourth.

The 28-year-old has now been linked to Premier League rivals Everton.

Speaking to Napoli Magazine (as quoted by Arena Napoli), Italian football journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has reported that Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti could persuade the United target to move to Goodison Park, having previously worked together at Napoli.

Whether that would be enough to persuade Kalidou Koulibaly to chose Everton over other interested clubs certainly remains to be seen, especially with bigger clubs such as Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain being thrown around. Everton themselves do have wealthy owners now in order to splash out big transfer fees and wages to attract top talent.

It will be interesting to see whether we will make a move or not for the centre-back over the summer…