Chelsea's Koulibaly pursuit boosted by agent's comments

Chelsea's long-time pursuit of Napoli centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly has been bolstered after comments from the agent for the Senegalese international hinted at a potential summer exit.

Antonio Conte's hunt for the robust defender has been anything but easy, and comments from Koulibaly's agent, Bruno Satin, have added the latest wrinkle in the tale.

"With a President (Aurelio De Laurentiis) like that, declaring certain things, it’s difficult for us to say 100 percent that we’ll stay next year," Satin admitted, courtesy of the Evening Standard.

Seemingly innocuous in terms of the sometimes scandalous dealings in Serie A, Satin's comment suggests that the Napoli president is a live wire, compelled to make impulsive decisions.

That would appear contradictory to Napoli's prior dealings with Chelsea, with De Laurentiis threatening to sue the Premier League giant for tampering with the 25-year-old Metz academy grad.

Related: Napoli pres threatens to sue Chelsea over Koulibaly row

Claiming that Chelsea's pursuit of the player cost Napoli millions in revenue, De Laurentiis said in June, "I had thought Koulibaly was a good man.

"He created damages worth millions of euros, and I have specialists studying the issue now. ... If we discovered that Chelsea were behind this, we could sue them for damages too."

Two weeks later, Satin publicly confirmed Chelsea's interest in Koulibaly as he signed an extension with Napoli through 2021 months before De Laurentiis admitted that the Blues had offered a club-record £58 million in the summer window.

"Koulibaly I need here to make the match," De Laurentiis said in October. "I need to play, so I need the players. Koulibaly, this year, will remain here. Next year we will speak about."

That comment, paired with the one from Koulibaly's agent, suggests a potential exit for the player, though in this quest for one of the continent's emerging defenders, few things are surprising in this soap opera.