Chelsea make £38m bid for Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly as Antonio Conte continues overhaul

Chelsea have reportedly made a £38m ($49.7m) bid for Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly. The west London club have been strongly linked with a move for the highly-rated Senegalese star in recent weeks and now appear to have firmed up their interest with a big-money bid for his services.

New Blues manager Antonio Conte - who is familiar with the defender due to his Serie A connections - has launched a move for Koulibaly and is now waiting to hear a response from the Italian club, according to Sky Italia. However, Napoli are not in desperate need to sell any of their most-coveted assets in light of Gonzalo Higuain's move from Naples to Juventus.

The striker joined the current Serie A champions in a deal worth as much as €90m earlier this week. As a result, Chelsea may find it tough to lure Koulibaly to Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, the new Chelsea boss has admitted he is keen to improve his squad in the coming weeks, but insisted the club is patiently waiting for the right player to become available, after striking deals for former Marseille frontman Michy Batshuayi and N'Golo Kante.

"They are good signings, sure. Batshuayi is a young player but very strong," Conte said of Chelsea's transfer activity so far this summer, according to ESPN. "Last season he scored 17 goals in France. Also he played the last tournament in France, the Euro.

"He's very young, but great potential. He uses both feet, very fast; good technique and I think he's a good buy for Chelsea. Also, Kante was a target for Chelsea, my target, Chelsea's target. It's important that we close these operations.

"Now we are waiting for the right situation to improve our team but it's important now to work very hard to try to play an attractive football with high intensity. Now it's important to work, then in the future, we'll see."