Chelsea have made final bid in Koulibaly chase — report

This might be nothing more than a footnote, given other developments that seem likely — namely that Koulibaly will finally sign his contract extension and put us all out of our misery — but according to the Telegraph earlier Monday morning, Chelsea have informed Napoli that we’ve made our last offer for the player.

Whether that’s meant as an ultimatum, as the Telegraph claim, or a concession of the inevitable, as our lack of leverage in this situation would claim, remains to be seen. The report maintains that Koulibaly still would prefer to move, but that runs contrary to other, non-English reports.

Chelsea’s last and final and ultimate take-it-or-leave-it bid is believed to be around £40 million. If Napoli refuse, just as they’ve done several times already, Chelsea will be looking for alternate targets, though that step is off to a poor start as well with the recently rejected Romagnoli offer. Torino’s Nikola Maksimovic remains the obvious backup choice, though Napoli could continue to be annoying and bid for him as well.

As Antonio Conte stated, we’re dealing with a "crazy market" and with little over a week left in the transfer window, it will be increasingly difficult to find available starting-calibre players.