According to Voetbal24, Arsenal and Tottenham are interested in signing Napoli forward Dries Mertens, while Inter Milan are also keen.
The Belgian news outlet claims that Napoli want to offload the 33-year-old, because he weighs too heavily on their budget.
As a result, they will not be tough negotiators if Arsenal or Tottenham submit an appropriate bid for the 96-cap Belgium international.
Mertens is said to be surprised by Napoli’s stance.
Voetbal24 say he’s very happy in Naples, and would prefer to see out his contract.
We can’t deny it – we’re pretty surprised by this news as well.
Mertens is Napoli’s all-time top scorer with 134 goals for the Italian giants – more than the great Diego Maradona netted for the club.
In that respect, we’d have thought Napoli would cherish the diminutive forward, rather than send him to the scrapheap.
Regardless, Napoli’s loss could be Arsenal or Tottenham’s gain.
Mertens might be quite old at 33, but there’s no denying he knows where the goal is.
Across his career, the Belgian has scored an impressive 232 goals across spells with FC Utrecht, PSV Eindhoven, AGOVV Apeldoorn and Napoli.
If the north London duo are able to land Mertens on the cheap as a result of Napoli’s stance, they’d be silly not to at least bid for him.
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