Premier League club Chelsea are not giving up their interest in signing Dries Mertens from Napoli during the summer transfer window – according to a report in Goal.
Dries Mertens is about to leave Napoli as a free agent and this is why Frank Lampard has been desperate to sign the 33-year-old for the next season.
But recently, the Blues suffered a massive setback when reports in Italy claimed that Mertens is eager to remain in the Serie A and right now, it’s Inter Milan who are the frontrunners in signing the forward.
Immediately after this, there were rumours of Chelsea dropping their interest in Dries Mertens but now as per Goal Italy, Lampard is still occupied in signing him.
The report claims: “Inter – Chelsea duel for Dries Mertens. While the renewal with Napoli is on the high seas, the Nerazzurri and Blues launch themselves head to head for the Belgian expiring contract with the De Laurentiis club.”
Why are Chelsea so eager to sign Dries Mertens?
Dries Mertens is not the only forward on Lampard’s radar but one by one, all of his other transfer targets seem to be heading elsewhere.
Timo Werner and Aubameyang are two other centre-forwards who are being targetted by Chelsea but as per a report in Sport, both these players are on the transfer radar of Inter Milan.
Sport are claiming: “Barça would like to make the final arreón for Lautaro Martínez in a few days. The operation is already mature enough to try to close it and the Blaugrana club also knows that Inter Milan are pressing.
“The Italians are already negotiating with Werner (Leipzig) and Aubameyang (Arsenal), but they need the money to face the final negotiations.”
Inter are about to lose Lautaro Martinez to Barcelona in the coming weeks and Antonio Conte is ready to use that transfer money to bring in either Werner or Aubameyang.
And so with both these forwards on Inter’s transfer wishlist, Chelsea have decided to shift their focus to Dries Mertens who right now is the least favourite for the Serie A side.
Lampard badly needs to bring in a striking partner for Tammy Abraham before the next season begins and it seems like 33-year-old Mertens could be that man.
