7 minutes ago, Blueblur said:

 

A 5 year deal? That seems a little excessive don’t you think? 

6 minutes ago, JM7 said:

A 5 year deal? That seems a little excessive don’t you think? 

I can't see it being 5 years.  Romano doesn't know sh*t.

But perhaps the club is still scared from Marina letting all our centre backs go into the last year of their contracts last season and don't want a repeat 

Great signing, the 5 year is a surprise but that's not up to me. 

This one seemed to come out of no where but sounds like a good defender.

I find it very hard to get excited about this signing, he’s 31. I’ve not watched him so hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise but I can’t get past his age.

Thiago Silva is a special player, I don’t get the same vibes on Koulibaly. Hope I’m wrong.

49 minutes ago, JM7 said:

A 5 year deal? That seems a little excessive don’t you think? 

I agree, eventhough I would like to see him here, because I think he is the best player qualitywise that we could realistically sign for the LCB position, but a 5 year deal on 10m€ net(this is almost 20m€/£17m gross right?) seems extremely high and risky for a player which is 31 and never played in the Premier League.

However our need for an experienced CB with leadership qualities is clear, so I still see this transfer positive and am hopeful that we know what we're doing and that he has the longevity for the length of his contract.

Edited July 12, 20224 yr by Blue2

That makes his wages as 165k BEFORE tax so 300k in general, more than Toni wanted if reports are true...shesh...

4 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

That makes his wages as 165k BEFORE tax so 300k in general, more than Toni wanted if reports are true...shesh...

Nah, Its €10M NET a year €10M = roughly £8.45M 

£8.45M/12 = 704k net a month = £176kpw before tax

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Kalidou Koulibaly to #Chelsea is scheduled to close tomorrow.

[via @DiMarzio]
 

Seems to be getting close and being reported by more and more well reputable journos. 

i'm happy with that, was dreaming of a Silva Koulibaly partnership

Captain of Senegal

Captain of Napoli

Big presence coming in if so, age-wise doesn’t affect the trajectory of cobham grads and the contract length is simply a byproduct of the competition for him and why he won’t stay at Napoli offering him less time. Overviewing his traits.. there is little to nitpick in terms of weaknesses, will wait before getting too excited as Napoli are notoriously difficult to deal with; even with one year left on his deal it wouldn’t surprise me if they hold their ground.

Don't forget Koulibaly also comes with an already forged relationship with Mendy, which always helps defensively. Plus speaks French, so will have no trouble talking to Thiago whenever they play together. 

I'm fairly happy with the deal, way overdue as we've are linked to him since who knows when. 

i think Koulibaly is a better defender than Rüdiger. Purely defending wise. Rüdiger had a lot of spirit. Rüdiger doesn't have that natural ability to get in the right position every time. He wasn't a very clever defender. He was brute force. Koulibaly is strong but he also seems to have the intelligence. 

4 hours ago, Valerie said:

No, he'll sign for us and take squad number 26 

Looks like he’s coming for our boy Alonso instead 

2 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

i think Koulibaly is a better defender than Rüdiger. Purely defending wise. Rüdiger had a lot of spirit. Rüdiger doesn't have that natural ability to get in the right position every time. He wasn't a very clever defender. He was brute force. Koulibaly is strong but he also seems to have the intelligence. 

Koulibaly a more intelligent defender and quite amazingly more athletic. 

9 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Koulibaly a more intelligent defender and quite amazingly more athletic. 

I'm not saying he is going to be better than Rüdiger, only time can tell.  Rüdi did really well, but only under Tuchel really. I think with Koulibaly we could play a back 4 (not that i am against our current formation). 

imagine Chilwell - Thiago Silva - Koulibaly - James as a back 4

that's a CB pairing with close to 1000 games under their belt

Edited July 12, 20224 yr by azpi28

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

I find it very hard to get excited about this signing, he’s 31. I’ve not watched him so hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise but I can’t get past his age.

Thiago Silva is a special player, I don’t get the same vibes on Koulibaly. Hope I’m wrong.

He just turned 31. June. But yeah, his age is his only drawback I guess, but we should get 2-3 season out of him for sure. Maybe more. How a person/player ages is always has hard to know.

22 minutes ago, Brigadeiro Mk II said:

Don't forget Koulibaly also comes with an already forged relationship with Mendy, which always helps defensively. Plus speaks French, so will have no trouble talking to Thiago whenever they play together. 

I'm fairly happy with the deal, way overdue as we've are linked to him since who knows when. 

Also worth mentioning he would come in and have a good understanding with Jorginho from his Napoli days.

10 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

He just turned 31. June. But yeah, his age is his only drawback I guess, but we should get 2-3 season out of him for sure. Maybe more. How a person/player ages is always has hard to know.

i'm starting to think differently about age

how often do we see young players get injured many times and for long times?

Look at players like Benzema and Modric. They are still world class. If Koulibaly is as fit as Thiago Silva (maybe Thiago can teach him) he might play for 4 seasons.

Also you have the advantage of experience and leadership, which will help develop the younger players.

With younger players you take a risk paying hefty amounts hoping that they potentially get to the level of a Thiago Silva and Koulibaly. + you have to factor in that in their first couple of seasons they are on a learning curve where they are going to make mistakes.

And another thing. The younger players have a completely different mentality and usually not in a good way. 

 

Edited July 12, 20224 yr by azpi28

6 hours ago, dkw said:

How about Robinho.....ooohhhh....maybe not.

Kenyon running in with the Olympic torch to get the deal done

The quoted fee (c. £40m) and 3+1 contract is both a huge risk and sign of intent. 

Bang goes out 1yr contract policy on over 30s!

Needs musts I guess

The age thing would be a worry if we had two other defenders aged 30-32 and another shortly behind at 28 (like the JT, Ricky and Alex situation of the late 00's) but in a situation where we have Chalobah and hopefully Colwill coming through it makes sense to look at experienced defenders to balance that out. 

As good a prospect that Gvardiol looks, sign him and Kounde and we're a Silva injury or worse age finally getting him away from fielding an U23 back three.

if we need to keep a clean sheet we can just switch to the James - Silva - Koulibaly back 3 with Kanté patrolling in front 

that's some f**king wall 😍

2 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

The quoted fee (c. £40m) and 3+1 contract is both a huge risk and sign of intent. 

Bang goes out 1yr contract policy on over 30s!

Needs musts I guess

The over 30’s policy was nice while it lasted but ultimately unrealistic, as with most ‘blanket’ rules/bans that don’t consider individual circumstance.

23 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

i'm starting to think differently about age

how often do we see young players get injured many times and for long times?

Look at players like Benzema and Modric. They are still world class. If Koulibaly is as fit as Thiago Silva (maybe Thiago can teach him) he might play for 4 seasons.

Also you have the advantage of experience and leadership, which will help develop the younger players.

With younger players you take a risk paying hefty amounts hoping that they potentially get to the level of a Thiago Silva and Koulibaly. + you have to factor in that in their first couple of seasons they are on a learning curve where they are going to make mistakes.

And another thing. The younger players have a completely different mentality and usually not in a good way. 

 

Leadership is a good point - we will be missing it heavily in Rüdiger's (and Dave's too) absence. Imagine Thiago would be out for a while!

From what I read so far it's one Koulibaly's traits - would have been eventually Napoli's captain next season for example - so more power to him! I don't agree with your last sentence which I find straight generalizing but we can bet that especially after the whole Lukaku debacle our signing process will vet player's "personality" even more intense. One would hope so at least.

Also Sterling checks out in that regard too imho so that's all quite promising. Ake seems a teamplayer as well.

Edited July 12, 20224 yr by weetee