Dries Mertens has hinted he would have left Napoli to join Barcelona over the summer had he known Neymar would leave.
Barcelona were heavily linked with a move for Mertens at the end of last season but the Belgium international didn’t want to be a reserve to Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
The 30-year-old ended up signing a new three-year deal with Napoli at the end of May only for Neymar to make a shock Barcelona exit at the start of August.
Mertens, who has a €28m release clause in his contract that will be active at the end of the current season, has revealed things may have panned out differently over the summer had he known Neymar would leave.
“Every now and then you feel like doing something different,” he told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. “I don’t always go on vacation in the same place… but at this moment, a transfer is not in my plans.
“If I’d known Neymar was going to leave… There was interest from them for a while, but I would’ve been the reserve to Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, so after a great year with Napoli, I didn’t want to go back on the bench, even if it was Barcelona.
“I decided to sign a new contract here and then Neymar went to Paris Saint-Germain, so the transfer market exploded. Barcelona, seeking a replacement, paid €100m for a player they should’ve shelled out half for [Ousmane Dembele].
“At times I think: ‘what would I be like now at Barcelona.’ I like to think that, because if you look at who has been playing on the left there in recent months… I could’ve played there.”
Mertens has established himself as one of the most prolific goalscorers in Italy since the start of last season after struggling for regular playing time during his first three years at Napoli. In fact, since August 2016, only Ciro Immobile has scored as many Serie A goals as Mertens (38).
