Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis feels Manchester United paid way over the odds for defender Harry Maguire and insists Kalidou Koulibaly is now worth three times as much.
United broke the world transfer record for a defender when signing Maguire from Leicester City earlier this week, having been in for the former Hull City stopper all summer. The Red Devils had previously been linked with Napoli’s Koulibaly, but opted against a move for the Senegal international, preferring to base their defence around the Three Lions star.
Maguire coast them £80m, eclipsing the £75m Liverpool paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk. De Laurentiis believes United forked out too much for the Sheffield-born central defender and believes his man is now worth considerably more than Maguire. “He has a clause of £150m,” De Laurentiis told ESPN.
“But, for example, in England, they paid £85m for a player. In Napoli, I would pay £30-£35m. “With that in mind, I think Koulibaly’s value is £250m if they paid that much for that guy.” It is unlikely United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be too concerned by the comments, as he plots a way of getting the Old Trafford outfit back into the top four.
The north-west giants will play in the Europa League this season and have been installed as 5.50 favourites to lift the trophy, with Arsenal on offer at 7.00. United kick off their Premier League campaign at home to Chelsea on Sunday and are 2.20 to take all three points, with Frank Lampard’s Blues on offer at 3.40.
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