It appears that, after a month or so of speculation, Dries Mertens is prepared to commit his future to Napoli, the club he has found such success with this season.
Near unstoppable since being moved to the centre of Maurizio Sarri’s front three, the forward has now scored 22 goals in 31 league appearances, and attracted a lot of interest from all over Europe.
As tends to be the case, this also included a lot of Premier League clubs, with Manchester United and Chelsea strong candidates, while ‘smaller’ English sides, like West Ham, were also put forward.
The Hammers were suggested by the Belgian media as a potential destination back in March, and, if Il Mattino are to be believed, Slaven Bilic made a move to sign the forward recently.
The Italian newspaper claim that West Ham came forward to try and lure Mertens to the Premier League, but it appears their offensive failed, as the Belgium international is now very close to signing a new deal in the south of Italy.
Il Mattino explain the latest phone call between Aurelio de Laurentiis and his club’s forward was extremely positive, and the foundations are there to build a renewal everyone will be happy with.
This is likely to include a €22m release clause that only non-Italian sides can trigger from 2018 onwards.
All of this information suggests Mertens is keen to help Napoli build on this positive season, as they keep closing the gap on second placed Roma, while thinking about one final big move for his career at the end of the next campaign.
There’s still a chance until pen is put to paper, but it seems West Ham’s chances of signing the 22-goal forward have been put on hold.
