Manchester City ‘will have to pay cut-price £65m to land Kalidou Koulibaly’

Manchester City will reportedly have to pay £65million to bring Kalidou Koulibaly to the Etihad Stadium.

The Napoli centre-back is a top transfer target for Pep Guardiola this summer as he plans to splash the cash, as revealed by Sportsmail this week.

And the price tag they have been quoted by the Italian club is lower than the original £80m valuation, according to The Mirror.

Kalidou Koulibaly is one of Manchester City’s top transfer targets this summer

Pep Guardiola is targeting an overhaul after City’s Champions League ban was overturned

Guardiola is desperate to find a reliable centre-back partner for Aymeric Laporte and has identified the 29-year-old as a priority signing. 

City’s transfer plans have been bolstered after their two-year Champions League ban was quashed by CAS on Monday.

Guardiola is also targeting a centre-back, left-back and forward as part of his rebuilding plans at the Etihad.

But the Senegal international played down talk of a potential Serie A exit at the weekend, telling Gazzetta dello Sport : ‘In football, you never know what happens. I never spoke to Napoli about leaving. If we have to find a solution, we will find it, but I have never talked about the transfer market.

Guardiola is desperate to find a reliable centre-back partner for first-choice Aymeric Laporte

‘I also read in the newspapers about my future. But I only want to think about playing, I am 100 per cent [committed to] Napoli and it bothers me to be linked, every day, to this or that European club.

‘We will see what the president (Aurelio De Laurentiis) will decide and if he proposes to extend my contract, that would allow me to end my career here.

‘At the moment, I still have a three-year contract and I am not thinking of anything else but Napoli.’