When Chelsea completed the £34 million signing of Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli in the summer of 2022, there were plenty of questions. One thing was for sure, though - at 31-years-old, there was little-to-no resale value for the defender.
But, with big thanks to the seemingly unlimited amount of money being spent by Saudi Pro League clubs this summer, the Blues were able to get a decent £20m fee for the Senegal international. However, such a fee also represents a near-£15m loss after just 12 months of the defender's service.
It came in what was an absolutely manic 2022 summer transfer window. At the time, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital had just walked into Stamford Bridge after a multi-billion-pound deal saw them buy the club from Roman Abramovich. There was no recruitment team in place, something that has since changed, and there was very much a 'scattergun approach' to how the business was dealt with.
