Chelsea ‘serious’ about Napoli’s Dries Mertens — report

According to Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, Chelsea’s interest in Napoli striker Dries Mertens is very much real. So real in fact that the Blues have been in talks with the Italian outfit over a potential acquisition of the Belgian centre-forward this month.

The 32-year-old Mertens has entered the last six months of his deal with Napoli, meaning that he will be able to leave the club for free by the end of the season. This adds pressure on the often difficult Naples team to negotiate a transfer for Mertens as soon as possible, as they do not want to lose any value that remains in his current contract.

However, they are still trying to make things difficult for Chelsea. According to the report, Napoli denied our offer of €6-7m to get Mertens immediately, as they prefer to retain him until the end of the season on loan.

The silver lining here is that we are ready to make moves in the market to address our attacking woes. But we should not let ourselves be bullied by Napoli in any instance, especially in this one.