Chelsea agree personal terms with Kalidou Koulibaly — reports

This time yesterday, Chelsea were “close to” agreeing a transfer for Kalidou Koulibaly, and we have apparently made some more progress in the last 24 hours. While negotiations with Napoli over the transfer fee are still ongoing, we have reached an agreement with the player over personal terms by this morning.

And despite Koulibaly’s age, those terms are for five years at €10m per, according to various reports out of Italy. (That converts to about £160k per week.) Hopefully the 31-year-old’s stellar injury record will indeed continue as well, alongside his high level performances!

Of course, reaching an agreement with Napoli over a fee was always going to be the trickier part of this equation. We’ve certainly become familiar with (and vary of) their methods and shenanigans over the years — this is now our third or fourth summer of trying to scale the K2 transfer heights, for example, not to mention the sagas of Maurizio Sarri’s or Jorginho’s signings — so just because personal terms are done, it doesn’t mean this deal is the bag just yet.

But maybe soon?