Manchester United receive boost in race to sign Kalidou Koulibaly with Napoli likely to sell players this summer – reports

Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso has admitted that he expects to retain between 70-80% of his squad at the Stadio San Paolo after the summer transfer window, meaning 20-30% of his players will be sold this summer. The Coppa Italia winners have a host of top players, some of which have been linked with above away this summer, including Kalidou Koulibaly.

United could be boosted by Gattuso’s comments as they have been linked with a new central defender this summer with Koulibaly having been linked to the club over the last few summer transfer windows with the club signing Harry Maguire last summer for £80 million. Many expect the club not to make such a big move this summer, but who knows?

Other players linked with an exit from Napoli this summer are Arkadiusz Milik, Hirving Lozano and Allan and Lozano has been linked to United already, although that seemed to be speculation more than anything of substance. There will be lots of thing happening with football this summer with clubs seeking to balance the books due to the coronavirus.

Gattuso spoke to the media about what could happen at the club this summer, confirming that he would not need to use the transfer market much, but will need to see which players will be leaving the club first, before coming up with a plan for the future, seeing which players they will need to replace. The former Italian midfielder said:

“We don’t need to operate too much in the market. We have to see who’s going to leave us. Our chairman knows it – we speak about it every week.

This is a strong team but I think that only 70-80% of the players will stay with us. We will do a few transfers but I know this team has great quality [already].”

Koulibaly is a good player but United should be focussed on using the money they have on a problem area, which is the right-wing. It is possible they they could operate Mason Greenwood in that area, although a player more experienced in that role would be so much better. United’s defence could be tested with Eric Bailly or Axel Tuanzebe forming a partnership with Maguire.

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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.