According to Calciomercato, Arsenal and Manchester United are keeping a close eye on Napoli’s contract talks with star player Dries Mertens.
The same report suggests Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis has made sorting out Mertens’ contract situation as a priority after the two parties have long been involved in contract negotiations.
Mertens’ current deal at Stadio San Paolo expires in 2020, but the Serie A outfit are keen on sorting a deal which lasts long term and given the calibre of player we’re talking about nobody can blame them.
For instance, Mertens has scored 17 goals and registered six assists in Serie A this season. He has a remarkably low release clause, valued at €28 million, as per Goal, for clubs outside Italy and that is bound to be struck unless significantly raised these coming weeks.
Napoli’s panic is understood.
De Laurentiis wants the 30-year-old to commit his future to his current club, therefore, removing the release clause from his current contract. Napoli will need to hand the striker an annual salary of €4 million to achieve this, according to the same report as initially mentioned, which also claims the situation is far from resolved.
Arsenal could definitely do with a player with these attributes to introduce more fire power to their attack, but it also depends on the plans of Arsene Wenger’s successor with the Frenchman retiring at the end of the season.
United, on the other hand, already have Romelu Lukaku up front with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial both fighting for their places.
Yep! Martens is the right age for Mourinho to spend an inordinate amount of money on. Just another dead financial weight on United’s books with no sell on value and not many years left in the tank to be United’s future.
Don’t you get sick of spell check replacing words, you are forever having to proof read when you know you have spelled them correctly in the first place, it should be MERTENS.