Manchester City are close to making their third major signing of the summer.
It's clear that Pep Guardiola's men are keen to rectify the mistakes of the 2019/20 season and make the necessary changes to try and wrestle the Premier League title back from Liverpool.
Ferran Torres was the first player to arrive for $26 million from Valencia, but the Citizens have made no secret of the fact strengthening their defence is their priority in the transfer window.
Man City spending big
Although Ederson finished the 2019/20 season with the Golden Glove award, the 35 goals they conceded in the league was a substantial hike on their previous, title-winning campaigns.
Nathan Ake was the first expression of their mission to stop the rot with City procuring the ex-Chelsea defender from newly-relegated Bournemouth to the tune of £41million.
And although City seem to be occupied with Lionel Messi's ongoing situation at Barcelona, they haven't taken their eye off the ball when it comes to bolstering their back-line.
Man City target Koulibaly
Kalidou Koulibaly seems to be linked with a Premier League move ever single transfer window, but reports indicate that the Ballon d'Or nominee has never been closer to moving to England.
It's universally accepted that the Napoli man is one of the best defenders in the world and therefore City could do a lot worse than partnering him up with Aymeric Laporte coming into 2020/21.
Well, get excited City fans, because France Football reported on Monday night that the club have taken a major stride towards getting Koulibaly on board for the coming season.
That's because the French publication, who run the aforementioned Ballon d'Or award, claim that Koulibaly has agreed personal terms for a move to the Etihad Stadium.
Koulibaly agrees personal terms
According to a translation by GetFrenchFootballNews, City are negotiating with the player through Txiki Begiristain and it's now down to the club to agree a fee with Napoli.
The Italian side are yet to receive a concrete bid from City, though their agreement of personal terms with Koulibaly suggests it is their intention to do exactly that.
And although Koulibaly won't go on strike to force a move away from Naples, it's reported that the 29-year-old is indeed keen to move on and his salary could double or treble in England.
GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says
In many respects, this deal is more crucial to City than Messi.
In fact, signing Koulibaly or not could be the deciding factor in the Premier League title race, because it's imperative that City find a world-class partner for Laporte if they're going to bridge the gap to Liverpool.
And frankly, they could hardly have done better than targeting Koulibaly who has long since been one of the world's best defenders and has all the attributes to thrive in the English game.
As far as I'm concerned, Koulibaly and Laporte would make for the strongest centre-back partnership in the Premier League and would thus give them an advantage over their Anfield rivals.
Only time will tell whether City will be able to afford both Koulibaly and Messi but, as crazy as it sounds, they're better off signing the Napoli star if they want their trophy back.