What's new

Kalidou Koulibaly

More than happy to let him go and bring Colwill back. Saves us 290k a week and we get an upgrade. Knowing Juventus they'll want a loan deal with no obligation to buy. 

 
Herein lies the problem with assessing quality across different leagues. Koulibaly was outstanding at Napoli for a long time. But Chris Smalling is currently ranked one of Serie A's best defenders at Roma. Ditto Tomori at Milan. But the fact is that Serie A, for the most part, doesn't play at anything like the tempo of the PL. The pressure is less intense. Koulibaly, at his age, had to be problematic, which made his purchase price, salary, and length of contract just bizarre. 

It was the previous admin's decision to sell the likes of Guéhi that contributed to the problem. The noises about keeping Colwill are at least promising.

 
I feel like KK is one of the only players fans have been a bit too critical off. He was terrible at the beginning of the season but has been decent in recent months, even good at times. Selling him makes a lot of sense but if we can`t find any suitable team to take him off our hands he will probably be a decent contributor next season.

 
Reports that he is out for the season....

...what are the chances that he has played his last game of us?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
dermott said:
Herein lies the problem with assessing quality across different leagues. Koulibaly was outstanding at Napoli for a long time. But Chris Smalling is currently ranked one of Serie A's best defenders at Roma. Ditto Tomori at Milan. But the fact is that Serie A, for the most part, doesn't play at anything like the tempo of the PL. The pressure is less intense. Koulibaly, at his age, had to be problematic, which made his purchase price, salary, and length of contract just bizarre. 

It was the previous admin's decision to sell the likes of Guéhi that contributed to the problem. The noises about keeping Colwill are at least promising.
Click to expand...
Or Koulibaly was signed to play mostly as ccb where he has been very good

 
A loan may to buy may be our best way to move on Koulibaly, a popular method for Italian clubs.

Unless they sell a defender I don't think Napoli would look to take him back, however both Milans, Juve and Roma would likely be options.

Given he signed a 4 year deal, with an option of 1 more year, our FFP remaining value on him is 25.5mill, a cost of 8.5mill a season. His near 300k a week wages are a huge block no side will match.

Now it depends on how much he would like to return to Italy. If he does he might be willing to cut his wages and be sold for 18mill or so, and see us take a hit on FFP for 7.5mill or around that. 

If not a loan to buy could work. Loan club pays a 4mill loan fee, agrees to buy for 17mill, and we cover part of his wages for the next 3 years. Costing us 4mill in fees and the first year, nothing after.

So there are ways to get it done, see how good Winstanley and Stewart are.

 
Everyone thought Rudiger was sh*t when we signed him. Error prone ... unreliable ... turned out a new manager with better defensive organisation was all that was needed to turn him into an untouchable. There is surely a chance the same could apply to Koulibaly under Pochettino ? I don't even think he's been that bad,  bearing in mind the context of not one outfield player having played to potential this season. Having said that, I think KK misses Italy, so it would not surprise me if we have another "Werner" scenario whereby he is prepared to take a significant wage cut to facilitate a move to somewhere he prefers to be.

 
Sexyfootball said:
Everyone thought Rudiger was sh*t when we signed him. Error prone ... unreliable ... turned out a new manager with better defensive organisation was all that was needed to turn him into an untouchable. There is surely a chance the same could apply to Koulibaly under Pochettino ? I don't even think he's been that bad,  bearing in mind the context of not one outfield player having played to potential this season. Having said that, I think KK misses Italy, so it would not surprise me if we have another "Werner" scenario whereby he is prepared to take a significant wage cut to facilitate a move to somewhere he prefers to be.
Click to expand...
No, because unlike Rudiger, Koulibaly doesn't have the athleticism. Put him against a single player with a bit of pace or dribbling ability and Koulibaly is in big trouble, we have seen it countless times this season. He can't turn and he can't run. Play a high line with Koulibaly and it's going to end in disaster. The only thing Koulibaly is useful for now is teams that like to sit back and hit on the counter. His positional play around the box is still good and tackling from a standing position and on the edge of the area, but push him up a few yards and he is a liability.

 
Scott Harris said:
No, because unlike Rudiger, Koulibaly doesn't have the athleticism. Put him against a single player with a bit of pace or dribbling ability and Koulibaly is in big trouble, we have seen it countless times this season. He can't turn and he can't run. Play a high line with Koulibaly and it's going to end in disaster. The only thing Koulibaly is useful for now is teams that like to sit back and hit on the counter. His positional play around the box is still good and tackling from a standing position and on the edge of the area, but push him up a few yards and he is a liability.
Click to expand...
JT was crap in a high line as well. If the manager is opting for that system and then selecting players whose attributes don't match, it just means the tactics are wrong for the personnel. 

In a bad year, he has still been better then most, albeit short of what we thought we were getting. Personally I'd have played Colwill at LCB this season, and I'd definitely do it next season. I still think KK would be better next season if he's still here. We always talk about players needing time to acclimatise to the PL.

 
Sexyfootball said:
JT was crap in a high line as well. If the manager is opting for that system and then selecting players whose attributes don't match, it just means the tactics are wrong for the personnel. 

In a bad year, he has still been better then most, albeit short of what we thought we were getting. Personally I'd have played Colwill at LCB this season, and I'd definitely do it next season. I still think KK would be better next season if he's still here. We always talk about players needing time to acclimatise to the PL.
Click to expand...
We won't be changing that high line to accommodate one player though, and I don't think we should, not for somebody like Koulibaly who is clearly struggling at this level. Terry couldn't play in a high line because of his pace, but Koulibaly has a lot less going for him than Terry ever did. Terry was so good at everything else that it was worth building that defence around him.

I don't agree that Koulibaly has been better than most either. He's been one of the worst players this season.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sconnie Blue said:
Terry made up for his lack of pace with his positioning and awareness when stepping up for a challenge. Not to mention his ball playing ability. 

I struggle to think of one decent thing Koulibaly has. 
Click to expand...
For a big strong guy, he's surprisingly timid. I found in a lot defending corners situations, he just stood at the goal line instead of going for the challenge ( as he got paid to do), no wonder we conceded lots of goals and clear cut chances.

 
dkw said:
Was he, when was this? He wasnt crap in any season he had with Chelsea.
Click to expand...
Not the full season but he wasn't good under AVB when we started to play a high line. I remember many people thought Terry was finished and hitting father time, but anyone with a brain could see it was AVB's suicidal high line that was killing the team. But then he gave us 4 excellent seasons after that, especially under Jose. 

 
bluehaze said:
I'm absolutely staggered he's on nearly £300,000 a week I only just saw it on Twitter I'm speechless goodnight.
Click to expand...
him and sterling both, in fact both are just over 300k a week as well.

This is what happens when its just boehly doing all the negotiating...

There is a stark contrast between our summer window (before the board came in) and our Jan window (winstantly, vivell were all there). The wages are the biggest difference and the sort of targets we went for

 
Sexyfootball said:
Everyone thought Rudiger was sh*t when we signed him. Error prone ... unreliable ... turned out a new manager with better defensive organisation was all that was needed to turn him into an untouchable. There is surely a chance the same could apply to Koulibaly under Pochettino ? I don't even think he's been that bad,  bearing in mind the context of not one outfield player having played to potential this season. Having said that, I think KK misses Italy, so it would not surprise me if we have another "Werner" scenario whereby he is prepared to take a significant wage cut to facilitate a move to somewhere he prefers to be.
Click to expand...
Yes but Rudiger had 5 years to sort his sh*t out and there were certainly periods where you could see his potential. Koulibaly is a year older with far less experience playing at this level.

Wonder if Real Madrid are interested in a swap deal....

Doubt KK misses Italy given how poorly black players are treated there, but Napoli may well be in the market for a defender because it looks like Kim Min-Jae will be hot property.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top