Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League leaders were reportedly keen on signing Napoli’s Dries Mertens – but the Serie A star is leaning towards Chelsea.
Liverpool have been here before.
In the summer of 2014, the Merseyside giants did everything in their power to lure Alexis Sanchez away from Barcelona. But they just couldn’t compete with the lure of London town.
There was much publicised interest in Alexis Sanchez, and that deal was done,” former Liverpool CEO Ian Ayre would later reveal, in quotes reported by the Express.
“The only reason it wasn’t was that the player and his wife wanted to live in London. We couldn’t move the football club to London unfortunately!”
Considering that Jurgen Klopp’s formidable Liverpool team are now enjoying a period of dominance not seen since their 1980s heyday, you would think that the pull of Anfield would be stronger than ever these days.
But it seems that a sixth European title, followed by a season which looks destined to end in Premier League glory, might still not be enough to tempt Dries Mertens to the continue his career in the North west.
From a sporting perspective, there is no one better right now than Liverpool. Though Mertens is putting geography over glory it seems with The Mail reporting that the Napoli forward dreams of spending the autumn days of his career in the leafy suburbs of the English capital.
Chelsea, then, is his most likely destination.
Tuttomercatoweb claimed that Liverpool would be willing to hand the 32-year-old Belgian a contract when his deal at Napoli expires in the summer. But, like Sanchez six years ago, Mertens looks set to snub Liverpool for London.
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