Kalidou Koulibaly

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Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Sims » Wed May 25, 2016 6:07 pm

Arsenal are interested in Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly after Arsene Wenger made centre-back and striker his transfer priorities following the £30 million signing of Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach.

Koulibaly, who is a 24-year-old Senegal international, is also among Chelsea and Manchester United’s potential targets but Arsenal intend to strengthen at centre-back following mixed performances last season from Per Mertesacker and Gabriel. Mertesacker has only one more year remaining on his contract while Arsenal will be conscious that Laurent Koscielny, who is the clear first choice central defender, is now also into his 30s

The need for a new striker has been compounded by Danny Welbeck’s knee injury and Arsenal’s leading target is still Juventus forward Alvaro Morata. The 23-year-old had a £23 million buy-back clause inserted in his contract when he left Juventus for Real Madrid and so is expected to re-join Madrid before then being made available.

Arsenal are also following Vincent Janssen at AZ Alkmaar but Wenger has been interested in Morata for several years and, although he has never scored 15 club goals in a season, believes that he would be ideally suited to Arsenal. Koulibaly would cost around £20 million and, like Xhaka, any deal for Morata would be likely to exceed £30 million with add-ons.

Arsenal are also tracking several young British players, including Bolton defender Rob Holding, Celtic left back Kieran Tierney and Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon. There will almost certainly also be departures this summer, with Kieran Gibbs expected to leave and Theo Walcott, David Ospina and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain likely to seek assurances about their probable involvement next season. Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez will also hold contract talks.

The arrival of Xhaka, though, is an indicator that Wenger is preparing to reach deeply into transfer fund this summer of around £75 million ahead of what is the final year of contract. “I like the style of football in the Premier League,” said Xhaka. “It’s aggressive. It’s not like other countries. English football is a fight. I like that but Arsenal can also play football. In Germany you can play aggressively but the referee will always blow his whistle, but in England that’s not the case. That’s better for me.

“It’s in my head that I am a leader. When I was younger, even though I had a big brother, my parents would give me the house key every day. Captaining Monchengladbach was very good for me.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/201 ... um=twitter by Jeremy Wilson (quite reliable too)

Bit about striker targets, contract extensions in there too
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby gooney » Wed May 25, 2016 6:18 pm

now this is a CB I can get excited about....but Arsenal cant afford napoli, benfica or porto players
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby MecurialGooner » Wed May 25, 2016 6:37 pm

tbf i've heard he's a great CB for Napoli. I haven't watched much of him myself.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Sims » Wed May 25, 2016 6:53 pm

If we get a CB it is crucial he is a native French speaker if he can't speak English
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Gunpowder » Wed May 25, 2016 8:29 pm

gooney wrote:now this is a CB I can get excited about....but Arsenal cant afford napoli, benfica or porto players


He's a defender. We might have to overpay little for his position but I'm sure it wouldn't be insanely high price like Higuain or Insigne would command.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Sims » Wed May 25, 2016 9:21 pm

He's 6ft 4 as well

This might be PG's best day as an Arsenal fan for a while
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Zenith » Wed May 25, 2016 9:31 pm

I don't know why most websites and games are wrong about his height, but Koulibaly is 6'2''. I've seen him play dozens of times for Genk and can assure you that he's not 6'4''.

Strong but error prone defender during his time at Genk so people were amazed when Napoli paid €8-10m for guy who had shown little defensive ability, a player who only really had his physicality and pace going for him.

Haven't watched watched much of Napoli this season, but given all the hype it looks like he's learnt how to defend over the last year or 2.

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Reina 6'2'' - Albiol 6'3'' - Ghoulam 6'2'' - Koulibaly 6'2'' - Callejon 5'10''
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Sims » Wed May 25, 2016 9:35 pm

Napoli's own website list him as 195cm which is basically 6 ft 4

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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Zedie » Wed May 25, 2016 9:40 pm

Gunpowder wrote:
gooney wrote:now this is a CB I can get excited about....but Arsenal cant afford napoli, benfica or porto players


He's a defender. We might have to overpay little for his position but I'm sure it wouldn't be insanely high price like Higuain or Insigne would command.


Gladbach fans seem genuinely amazed at how much we paid for Xhaka, looks like the era of paying British market prices/overpaying everywhere else in the world has started.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Stray8593 » Wed May 25, 2016 10:38 pm

Mangala mark two.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Mike Dean » Thu May 26, 2016 5:24 pm

He is fantastic. It will be a revelation to have him here, instead of Turtle Per.

He is quick, strong, mobile, plays plhysical and has great on ball skills on the ball for a CB.

Pairing him with Kos and then Xhaka in front of them would make for a very tough defense.

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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby KG3 » Fri May 27, 2016 5:06 pm

Hopefully it's true about time we bought in a physically strong centre back haven't had one since Senderos/Djourou and they were flops although senderos had that good champions league run and Djourou was a boss alongside Kos during 10/11 before his injury, this guy will compliment Kos very well.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby 22-0 » Fri May 27, 2016 5:32 pm

looks good but dont know much about him. if hes strong and fast then im down,
Last edited by 22-0 on Fri May 27, 2016 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby Arsenal Tone » Fri May 27, 2016 7:34 pm

Never heard of him but sounds like my kind of player! Yes please!
Raya/Ramsdale
White/Tomiyasu--Saliba/Timber--Gabriel/Kiwior--???/Zinchenko
???/Jorginho
Odegaard/Smith Rowe----Rice/???
Saka/Jesus-------------------Martinelli/Trossard
???/Havertz
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Re: Kalidou Koulibaly

Postby fredd1 » Fri May 27, 2016 7:54 pm

Tony_Adams wrote:Never heard of him but sounds like my kind of player! Yes please!


Same as, he looks big and strong and really quick has to be better than Merts
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