As the important transfer decisions start to churn out and Chelsea's business picks up, the summer window has started to feel like it's in full flow at Stamford Bridge.
Alongside a £45m deal to bring Raheem Sterling to the club, and the expectation that Manchester City teammate Nathan Ake could join him in London sooner rather than later, Napoli centreback Kalidou Koulibaly also looks set to become a part of Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea rebuild.
The Senegalese international has raced to the front of Todd Boehly's 'expected first male signing' list and could headline a busy period of transfer activity at SW6.
READ MORE: Kalidou Koulibaly and Nathan Ake poised to seal Chelsea transfers with two players set to leave
As with Sterling though, there are logistical, as well as tactical and financial, issues to sort out. None more so than to sort out which shirt number the dominant defender will be wearing as he swaps the Napoli sky blue for the royal Chelsea one.
The first place to look for hints as to which number he will don is his shirt history in Italy. For the entirety of his nine seasons in Naples, Koulibaly sported the no.26 top. This immediately springs thoughts of Chelsea's John Terry. The retired defender was Chelsea's last wearer of the shirt and unsurprisingly, nobody has risked the pressures that would come with having it since he left the club in 2017.
The no.26 isn't officially retired by the club so it is thought that it would be open to Koulibaly, should he want it.
There are other options that have been opened within the Chelsea squad though. Not only have Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen left the no.2 and no.4 spot vacant, but with the future of Jorginho being uncertain, the no.5 could crop up as well.
This alone is also dependent on the future of N'Golo Kante and therefore Sterling's shirt number. If the Englishman takes Kante's no.7, which football.london understands is a possibility with the Frenchman being asked if he would allow Sterling to have it, then Kante could also take over the no.5 shirt possibly left by Jorginho.
As for the other readily available numbers currently at Chelsea, they are : 15, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 33, and 34. Of these numbers, Koulibaly has worn the no.25 at Metz for two seasons and also had the no.5 top at former club Genk.
Meanwhile, should a deal to take Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso to Barcelona go through, the numbers 28 and 3 will both be free at Stamford Bridge. Of these two, the no.3 shirt aligns with Koulibaly's international choice, though he did once wear no.9 for his country.
Luckily for Chelsea fans and the curse of the striker's shirt, we don't think Koulibaly will be Chelsea's new no.9.
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