Napoli reject Chelsea's bid for Dries Mertens — report

Chelsea, as is custom, have left it to the last two days of the transfer window to do all the work which boils down to signing a new striker. And if things continue to stay the same, we may not even be able to achieve this one task as according to TuttoMercatoWeb, Napoli have refused an €8m offer from Chelsea for veteran striker Dries Mertens.

It’s good to keep in mind that TuttoMercatoWeb are far from the most reliable source of information. But they are at least on par with Fabrizio Romano, who is probably one of the most reliable journalists out there at the moment, who stated a few hours ago that Napoli are not looking to sell Mertens in January.

All in all, this Mertens saga is starting to look like an effort in vain, considering that Napoli are not looking to sell Mertens. Also, the Belgian international is not looking to leave the Partenopei either, since he wants to break Marek Hamsik's all-time goalscoring record at the club.

Chelsea themselves are only chasing Mertens because Olivier Giroud desperately wants to leave, and we'll only allow the sale of Giroud if we can sign a striker. So even we are not really looking to sign Mertens.

The wonders of transfer windows.