Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has been speaking to BEIN Sport (via Calciomercato.com) about the future of Belgian midfielder Dries Mertens and coach Maurizio Sarri. The patron however, couldn’t help but use the interview to take another swipe at former striker Gonzalo Higuain after the Argentine recently indicated to fans at the San Paolo prior to Juve’s clash with Napoli that it’s their President they should be aiming their anger at.
 

De Laurentiis explained that; “The fans are not stupid, they understand perfectly and anyway, if you are a person of good taste and who knows the history you know you cannot betray the team where you played and where you said you would never go to play for their sworn enemy that is Juvenus”.
 

On the subject of his current boss Sarri he stated that; “Sarri has a contract that binds him to us for many years and has a penalty clause that can take between another season of 8 million euro, that does not seem to me to indicate that he will go to train elsewhere".
 

Moving on to Dries Mertens, the patron declared that; “I believe that he has the desire to stay but he has to solve the problems with his wife. If he can do this then there is no doubt he will remain with us and we’ll welcome him with open arms”.

Finally, on rejecting a €55M offer from Chelsea for defender Kalidou Koulibaly De Laurentiis explained that; “I told Antonio Conte that I could not give away someone like Koulibaly unless the coach told me to do so”.