Arsenal has been handed a blow in their bid to land Dries Mertens from Napoli as the Belgian reportedly closes in on signing a new contract at Napoli.
Mertens has been a target of Arsenal for much of this year with the Gunners challenging the likes of Chelsea and Inter Milan for his signature as we have reported previously here at JustArsenal.
The Belgian had been expected to see out his contract at the Italian side and then leaving them for another team, which Arsenal hoped would be them.
However, a new report from Sky Sports Italia via Mail Sports is claiming that the striker is set to sign a new contract with Napoli after he and the club finally reached an agreement.
The new deal would reportedly keep him at the club until 2022 and he would earn €4 million per year, as well as €2.5m as a signing on fee.
Mikel Arteta would like to keep hold of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and he would be even more determined to keep the club captain now that he has missed out on a player who could have replaced the Gabon striker.
The Gunners have, however, been linked with a move for some other strikers in recent months and it will be interesting to see how their summer transfer business eventually turns out.
I don’t think , mertens is an Arsenal target. Media BS