Thomas Tuchel spoke highly of new signing Kalidou Koulibaly and he highlighted the difficulty in signing players from Napoli.
The 31-year-old Senegalese defender signed a four-year contract with the Blues last month after completing a €40m move from the Partenopei. Koulibaly became one of the best centre backs in the world during his time in the Campania capital and expectations are high ahead of his debut Premier League season.
Speaking in a press conference, Tuchel discussed the arrival of Koulibaly and what he brings to the Chelsea squad.
“We followed him for many years. Me personally and my staff followed him for many years and tried many times and were never successful because it is very hard to get players from Napoli, who are well known for the fact that they keep their squad together.
“He’s a leader. We had good information about him from Mendy and from Jorginho. We got the same feedback, a fantastic guy, a leader in the dressing room, calm, a role model.
“When you dig in and start looking at his games, analysing his games, you see the quality in defending, the quality in body positioning, his timing of defending.
“He uses both feet for build-up, he is confident, mobile and very experienced. When we had the chance, we went for it. It was our top priority. Very happy that he is with us.”
During his eight years with Napoli, Koulibaly made 316 appearances across all competitions, scoring 14 goals and providing eight assists in that time. He helped the Partenopei win a Coppa Italia and a Supercoppa Italiana, and played a key role for Senegal in their Africa Cup of Nations win earlier this year.
Napoli signed Korean talent Kim Min-Jae from Fenerbahce to replace the Senegalese centre back and it remains to be seen how tight the defence will be in the Campania capital following the 31-year-old’s departure.
FI – honestly you lot are just a bunch of inept so called sports journalists – how many different reports are you lot going to write about juve and buying either morata, muriel, raspadorri.
I even have major doubts over the mertens rejection – he came out 2 days later just talking about why he didnt renew with napoli – never mentioned rejecting juve and he was asked about where he was heading to?
Poor and lazy