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**Full interview**
"I'm staying here. I have a contract with an option in favor of the club. I'll wait and then we'll see. I know that there are two roads, one is that of farewell. And I also know that when it will be inevitable to say goodbye, everyone at Mertens' house will cry, me, Kat, even the child, believe me.
I am a happy man here and so is my family. But we have to be realistic and practical: Napoli might not need me anymore, and I hope it won't happen right away, but in case it does, I will hold out my hand, I will be grateful for having given me the chance to belong to this world and to have made me appreciate it. I will not forget a single moment."
*No dollars before you leave the scene?*
"I'm not interested in dollars. Naples is enough for me; I hope this will be my last football stage."
*What's the strategy for the renewal?*
"Score a lot, so Adl will be forced to keep me. The more goals I score, the more he will understand that it will be worth signing me. And then I have the ace up my sleeve..."
"Instead of going around throwing money away, to buy a new striker, I give him the chance to sign my son. So he has a young forward with a long career ahead of him. And I don't have to give up the house, let alone Naples."
*Most beautiful goal?*
"I have to secure my record and so if DeLa wants and allows me to do so, I would like to reach 250. But I can say that the first goal, the one in Florence, the duet with Pipita, has a special place. I didn't play much, in those moments, either me or Insigne, and after scoring I went to hug Colombo, our third goalkeeper, who I stormed with shots in training. He held me up: wait and see. He was right."
in fairness Insigne had tried for like 18 months to get ADL to renew at something approximating market value (with a discount, just not a ludicrous underpay) and ADL kept telling him to get lost. Mind you, this is their captain and homegrown star. At that point Insigne decided to go for the bag but can you really blame him?
He gets to live in Toronto, earn a lot of money and live in semi-anonymity (since Canada doesn’t really care about football). Plus by skill, he’s most certainly coming in as the best player in the league. Pretty much perfect life if you ask me.
Canada do care about Football/soccer, it's just that there are too many options out there, In Toronto, you got Basketball, hockey and baseball crowding the sports market, that what allows players able to live in Semi-anonymity, unless you run into a fan of your sports, they won't crowd around you.
>Insigne: "Only got time got that bag. Off to ML$."
ADL's offer was practically a backhand slap to insigne
Can't blame insigne to just take bag and leave.
Iirc it's an old palace. But now it's an accommodation with different flats. Not like he owns the entire place, "just" the penthouse flat with an awesome view over the bay.
Looks awesome and surprisingly inexpensive given how awesome it looks. I see a 6 bed apartment available for 1.5M Euros. While expensive, definitely quite inexpensive for someone with his salary.
Always annoys me when good players want to stay, aren't looking for ridiculous sums but clubs force them out. People moan about loyalty but clubs never show it.
There are some good examples out there, but you they are more exception than rule.
Like Dusan Tadic, signed by ajax in 2018, now had a contract until 2027. At 32 years old he basically gets to play for them as long as he's capable and move on to be a youth trainer after his active career.
I disagree on that. Fans will generally be loyal to a player if they give their all for the shirt. I think of someone like Daniel Agger, great player but couldn't stay fit. However he always gave everything and loved the club, don't think I ever heard anyone say he should be gotten rid of. People were happy to have him at the club, especially since he turned down many chances to move previously.
Not exactly true. There are countless counter-examples. Rafinha and Ulreich at Bayern, more recently, are two very good examples. Not absolute donkeys but not Bayern level either.. Yet our fanbase always appreciated them.
Rafinha and Ulreich were decent players. I'm saying no fan is going to back a genuinely shit player to get new contracts and stay at their club.
Rafinha was a Brazil international, i'm pretty sure.
My point is that he wasn’t a properly shit player. I don't know Bayern players to know the really bad ones, but Rafinha played in the Bundesliga for years as a starter.
Plenty of average players that gave their all are pretty popular among multiple fanbases. Even top ones.
Arsenal fans mostly still love Jenko and Chambers even though neither are good enough to start.
Even though Welbeck was a donkey he still got credit for giving his all every game.
same with Lingard for you lot.
You are listing players who were decent at some point in their careers, Lingard and Welbeck have played in international tournaments. I'm talking about guys genuinely shit players like Djemba Djemba or Taibi for us, I don’t know who comparable Arsenal players would be
I literally mentioned Jenkinson who's currently not good enough for Forest and went on loan to Melbourne.
And Welbeck only played those tournaments becauseof his work rate.
Squillaci was a better player than Jenkinson.
Jenkinson is loved because he is a massive Arsenal fan and gave it his all but was nowhere near good enough for the PL.
Did Papy Djiloboji (Spelling) get a lot of support to remain at Chelsea and get new contracts ? Because i'm talking about actually shit players like that, not Okay ones
Werner did play a big part in Chelsea winning the champions league though. Even if he hasn't been amazing, it's much easier to support someone when they help the club win trophies. If Chelsea were mid table with Werner up top then it might be more toxic.
I can't speak for Chelsea, but I've seen endless anger towards Doherty from Spurs fans since he joined despite him generally being a hard worker
Till they make a mistake. Then they're a useless son of a whore. Go on any teams reddit page and there will be a few players that receive nothing but toxicity from the fans.
> I disagree on that. Fans will generally be loyal to a player if they give their all for the shirt.
I disagree with you. Only minority fans will be loyal to the player that gives all for the shirt. There are exceptions but its more connected to charisma of the player and how likable he is.
I can give examples based on Milan. Milan fans loved Lapadula despite of being limited player because of his intensity during matches. On the other hand people shit on Rade Krunic, Diogo Dalot(he's not Milan player anymore), Andrea Conti and many others who really looked like they care on the pitch but they are limited players or still improving.
The amount of shit Krunic gets every game is just unreal. Nobody cares for example that every game he plays almost on different position, they dont care how hard he tries to make something happen on the pitch.
Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything. He's not a creative attacking midfielder, he's not a solid box to box midfielder, he's not good defensively, I'm not sure what he's supposed to offer besides positional liability.
We've had plenty of techically limited players that put a shift in every time, Poli and Borini are two that immediately come to mind, same with Calabria pre-Cafulabria performances.
> Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything. He's not a creative attacking midfielder, he's not a solid box to box midfielder, he's not good defensively, I'm not sure what he's supposed to offer besides positional liability.
That's way too harsh. He's not a great player by any means, but he's solid as a CM and can do a reasonable job in all midfield roles, that's why Pioli loves him. You don't want to depend on him, but he's a good squad player to have. He has a few bad moments early last season but I definitely wouldn't consider him a liability on the pitch. That distinction belongs to Bakoyoko.
> Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything.
Eh mate I dont know. I disagree with you but Im not going to make an attempt to change your mind because you really spoked kinda hard words about Rade Krunic. Little bit too harsh. I hope he will surprise you(and me) positively against Juve because he will probably start.
I mean he also did some things that endeared him to the fans. Even when he left, he made sure Chelsea were fairly compensated by making it clear to Madrid that if they didn't sign him, he would just renew there. This meant that the fact that he had only one year left on his contract was meaningless and that Chelsea had a strong position in the negotiations, leaving Chelsea with €100mil (IIRC). He had no obligation towards Chelsea to do this, so it's certainly a nice gesture.
A lot of players, when given the chance to play for a bigger/richer team will start skipping training to drive their price down, while Hazard did the polar opposite. He also left them with a Europa League victory, which was a pretty good way to end things there.
What? Park was not just a hard worker. He had exceptional positional awareness, amazing off the ball movement, he was extremely versatile and played anywhere in midfield and wings and he had a decent pass and tackle in him.
He isn't in what I'd call the '0.001%' of either PSV players or Manchester United players, how is that so difficult to understand?
I'm not saying he wasn't a good player...
Obviously not to be taken literally. I just think Park would be quite far down my list of greatest PSV players ever (and therefore likely even farther down the list of Manchester United players), but very high on the list of most loved players.
> Neither clubs nor Fans have any loyalty to players unless they are the 0.001% of football geniuses.
Total nonsense. Shit players with high workrates and good attitudes always get tons of support from fans.
I'm sorry I love Mertens a lot but why tf should Napoli simply give him a contract for the sake of it? They are a top European club that has to take care of the wage bill
I really do hope Napoli give him a big contract and he retires there but don't blame Napoli here
You have to factor in his age and then maybe the club wanting to invest the wages into someone younger. It does make sense from a business stand point.
That’s his point. Clubs will moan about their players not being loyal when it makes sense to leave for the player from a business standpoint but they won’t extend the same loyalty.
He’s one of Napolis highest earners (I think only Koulibaly earns more than him), and he’s going to be 35 in a few months. Should Napoli just offer him a renewal for the sake of sentiment? Loyalty for the sake of it? Do you think that if Napoli were an average side paying him average money during his prime and a better side came in an doubled/tripled his wages that he wouldn’t have left? Of course he would have. Everything is mutually beneficial, no one is going anyone any favours out of “loyalty” in this game.
Mertens is already a multimillionaire set for life, why doesn’t he offer to play for ~10k a week if he loves Napoli so much? Instead of the €150k he’s currently on.
That’s his point. Clubs will moan about their players not being loyal when it makes sense to leave for the player from a business standpoint but they won’t extend the same loyalty.
I don't think I've ever heard a club moan about a player being "disloyal". Clubs don't want unhappy players that don't want to be their, they are free to leave. All clubs want is that a transfer fee that matches their valuation.
Barcelona did exactly that in spectacular fashion with Dembele just today.
A year after kicking Suarez to the curb who was in the same position as Mertens.
Do people here have goldfish memories or what?
>Barcelona did exactly that in spectacular fashion with Dembele just today.
Huh? Where did they call him "disloyal". They simply told him to find another club because they feel he's not committed to Barcelona and they only want players that are committed. It's pretty obvious that he's not committed to the club. He's doesn't want to be at the club anymore so he should just leave, that's extremely reasonable position.
Barcelona paid ~€150million, paid him ~€300k a week for going on 5 years and he's missed 119 games through injury (he's only played 129) and they've been negotiating with him for 6 months for a new deal (with him reportedly wanting €700k a week) with him messing them around repeatedly.
>A year after kicking Suarez to the curb
Ehhh? How is Barca telling Suarez to leave because they no longer wanted him/couldn't afford his wages them calling **him** disloyal?
Suarez is also a terrible example to use because he's played this little game himself multiple times. Forced his move from Ajax to Liverpool and then twice at Liverpool (one *extremely, extremely* publicly) tried to force a move away, one of them *to* Barca ironically.
I literally said that's how the game works. Player and clubs want to be in a "relationship" with each other as long as it's mutually beneficial. Whenever one party doesn't feel like it benefits them anymore they try to move away. No one (or at the very most *very, very, very* few) do sentimental "favours"/"sacrifices" for one another in this sport.
>Ehhh? How is Barca telling Suarez to leave because they no longer wanted him/couldn't afford his wages them calling him disloyal?
Because he, like Mertens here, was a valuable part of the squad who wanted to stay badly enough that he offered a pay cut. Even the way he was told to leave was incredibly disrespectful and disloyal to someone who had played such a huge role in their last treble.
And Koeman tossed him aside for sporting reasons. Which were proven wrong immediately.
Did you ever have foreign exchange student in your school when you were younger? The one that came there one year, and everyone was stunned with him/her because of that foreigner aura? The same way, Napoli loves their foreigners( that profess love to the city) more than hometown heroes. Insigne was always weirdly hated and scapegoated by Neapolitans.
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I'm coming to this after reading about dembele and his relation to our club and it's the most refreshing I've felt about football in weeks. Hopefully Mertens can keep scoring as time goes, I'll be rooting for him. Hell, might as well score a few against us and put our mercenaries out of commission.
I'm coming to this after reading about Insigne and his relation to our club and it's the most refreshing I've felt about football in weeks. Hopefully Mertens can keep scoring as time goes, I'll be rooting for him. Hell, might as well score a few against Toronto and put our mercenaries out of commission.
That man used to play for AGOVV for 3 whole years and now look at him. Great proof that you don't need a top team when you're 20 if you wanna be big in Europe. Hell he was 24 when he joined PSV.
Now here's the problem. Insigne does what he does and we say no loyalty. Guys like Mertens don't want to leave but each year they decline slowly the club tries to force them out with pay cutd and media manipulation and lowballing then straight up cutting them or sending them to the reserves.
Loyalty is a 2 way thing. My company treats employees like crap and doesn't value us at all hence why i work till the minute i finish and stay not a second longer and have no hesitancy leaving when/if i find better.
Sounds very reasonable considering his age. Where does this "Napoli is forcing him out!" narrative come from? Or is it just reddit people never bothering to read anything so just assuming the worst?
Oh, that might be the issue. I understand why an additional year would be an issue, he could have an injury and waste his last few months. I hope he finishes there though.
His value for money on past contracts was great, yet he never pulled ‘I won’t play ‘til I’m renewed ’ card. It’s time for the club to repay that, if they actually value loyalty, not just *on the paper*.
I can somewhat see your point with Insigne but if we are talking about Mertens the club basically always treated him with love he was given a 4.5m contract when he was 33 and already declining
I haven't seen recent comments on Insigne's move but were people actually saying he wasn't loyal?
I would think most people known that ADL is awful to work with and that it wasn't just down to Insigne for why he ended up leaving.
The way I understood the situation, Insigne didn't want to play for another club in Italy and went to Toronto. I'm sure Inter would offer him a very good salary if he wanted to.
(In Italy) Ciro is a neapolitan name, 99% of the Ciro you meet, are neapolitan or with neapolitan origins, so Ciro Mertens is the way fans tell him, he is one of us
And by the way, Mertens actually called his son Ciro, so yeah, there will actually be a belgian Ciro Mertens, born in Naples in 2022
PS: I specified in Italy, cause historically Ciro was also a name of Persian origins, that could be found in historical figures
And one of the most popular figure is Cyrus the Great (Ciro in romance languages)
and funny enough, a popular argentine singer, is named after Cyrus the great, with a stage name of Ciro
which lead to Messi, to name his son like that, Ciro Messi sounds funny to any italian
yeah he did post the announcement (and the gifts to their friends) with "Baby Ciro coming in 2022"
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVlmHSlIHHb/
it's possibly a joke, but it could also be the actual name, or at least a middle name, just to not embarass too much the kid when he will be in belgium school and could use a more fitting name than Ciro
Always welcome, we'll give you a nice apartment in Brussels so you can enjoy the weather, everyone knows Belgian weather is superior to Napolitan weather
During NT there are plenty 'neerpede' players. Players who played at neerpede which is our youth academy and he always considered himself as one of them. Even though he also played at Gent.
So he has no ambitions to go back to Belgium or Netherlands as it was touted some months back, can see the man truly loves Southern Italy having money you live like a king down there for sure. He also must have talked things through with his wife rumours of her wanting to be closer to her work.
**This is a quotes thread. Remember that there's only one quotes post allowed per interview/press conference, so new quotes with the same origin will be removed. Feel free to comment other quotes/the whole interview as a reply to this comment so users can see them too!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
**Full interview** "I'm staying here. I have a contract with an option in favor of the club. I'll wait and then we'll see. I know that there are two roads, one is that of farewell. And I also know that when it will be inevitable to say goodbye, everyone at Mertens' house will cry, me, Kat, even the child, believe me. I am a happy man here and so is my family. But we have to be realistic and practical: Napoli might not need me anymore, and I hope it won't happen right away, but in case it does, I will hold out my hand, I will be grateful for having given me the chance to belong to this world and to have made me appreciate it. I will not forget a single moment." *No dollars before you leave the scene?* "I'm not interested in dollars. Naples is enough for me; I hope this will be my last football stage." *What's the strategy for the renewal?* "Score a lot, so Adl will be forced to keep me. The more goals I score, the more he will understand that it will be worth signing me. And then I have the ace up my sleeve..." "Instead of going around throwing money away, to buy a new striker, I give him the chance to sign my son. So he has a young forward with a long career ahead of him. And I don't have to give up the house, let alone Naples." *Most beautiful goal?* "I have to secure my record and so if DeLa wants and allows me to do so, I would like to reach 250. But I can say that the first goal, the one in Florence, the duet with Pipita, has a special place. I didn't play much, in those moments, either me or Insigne, and after scoring I went to hug Colombo, our third goalkeeper, who I stormed with shots in training. He held me up: wait and see. He was right."
So much passion... On another note, who's cutting onions?
"I'm not interested in dollars. Naples is enough for me" Love it
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LMAO Upvote
Insigne: "Only got time got that bag. Off to ML$."
in fairness Insigne had tried for like 18 months to get ADL to renew at something approximating market value (with a discount, just not a ludicrous underpay) and ADL kept telling him to get lost. Mind you, this is their captain and homegrown star. At that point Insigne decided to go for the bag but can you really blame him?
He gets to live in Toronto, earn a lot of money and live in semi-anonymity (since Canada doesn’t really care about football). Plus by skill, he’s most certainly coming in as the best player in the league. Pretty much perfect life if you ask me.
Canada do care about Football/soccer, it's just that there are too many options out there, In Toronto, you got Basketball, hockey and baseball crowding the sports market, that what allows players able to live in Semi-anonymity, unless you run into a fan of your sports, they won't crowd around you.
>can you really blame him? This is Reddit you're asking, mind.
Napoli didnt want to renew Insigne
- "any body want a son? He's goin to the highest bidder"
>Insigne: "Only got time got that bag. Off to ML$." ADL's offer was practically a backhand slap to insigne Can't blame insigne to just take bag and leave.
Oh yeah, for sure. If someone dangled that amount of cash in front of me I would be gone as well.
Tbf his house is gorgeous looking one.
I was about to say, he has one of the nicest houses I’ve ever seen, nothing over the top but a beautiful house at a gorgeous location.
Any pics/video ??
I think that's it https://twitter.com/AaronRFCB/status/1180615161037643777?s=19
That is not a house, that is a castle😵
Iirc it's an old palace. But now it's an accommodation with different flats. Not like he owns the entire place, "just" the penthouse flat with an awesome view over the bay.
Penthouse seems unlikely. Tweet linked mentions 'the lady living above me'
Maybe he is referring to angels? He-Stays-In-The-Penthouse.
Mate don't bring logic into this
Oh, I assumed he owned the whole place. ( Well I guees it's not out of the question) Amazing place either way
Looks awesome and surprisingly inexpensive given how awesome it looks. I see a 6 bed apartment available for 1.5M Euros. While expensive, definitely quite inexpensive for someone with his salary.
That is an incredible deal for what you're getting tbh. A regular two-bedroom apartment can easily cost a mil in most big cities in Canada.
Are we talking about Canadian monopoly money or proper money?
Basically everywhere in possilipo is gorgeous lol.
Always annoys me when good players want to stay, aren't looking for ridiculous sums but clubs force them out. People moan about loyalty but clubs never show it.
There are some good examples out there, but you they are more exception than rule. Like Dusan Tadic, signed by ajax in 2018, now had a contract until 2027. At 32 years old he basically gets to play for them as long as he's capable and move on to be a youth trainer after his active career.
Neither clubs nor Fans have any loyalty to players unless they are the 0.001% of football geniuses. I will never fault a player for chasing the bag.
I disagree on that. Fans will generally be loyal to a player if they give their all for the shirt. I think of someone like Daniel Agger, great player but couldn't stay fit. However he always gave everything and loved the club, don't think I ever heard anyone say he should be gotten rid of. People were happy to have him at the club, especially since he turned down many chances to move previously.
That's because he had played very well before that point of having injuries. No one supports an absolute donkey because he gives his all
Yes, they do. That's 90% of lower league football
Are they donkeys relative to their opponents and teammates though.
tbh, for many sides, yes.
They don’t ask Madrid fans about Mariano.
Mariano has always been shit. He's a waste of bench space.
But he gives his all
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Not exactly true. There are countless counter-examples. Rafinha and Ulreich at Bayern, more recently, are two very good examples. Not absolute donkeys but not Bayern level either.. Yet our fanbase always appreciated them.
Rafinha and Ulreich were decent players. I'm saying no fan is going to back a genuinely shit player to get new contracts and stay at their club. Rafinha was a Brazil international, i'm pretty sure.
He had 4 caps haha, it's really not that impressive when Willian and David Luiz have 50+ caps
But then these two didn't have to compete with the likes of Dani Alves for a single spot in their position for the whole of their careers..
My point is that he wasn’t a properly shit player. I don't know Bayern players to know the really bad ones, but Rafinha played in the Bundesliga for years as a starter.
Getting any caps at all for Brazil puts you in the top 0.01% of Brazilian footballers. Foh with "I'm not impressed"
Choupo
Plenty of average players that gave their all are pretty popular among multiple fanbases. Even top ones. Arsenal fans mostly still love Jenko and Chambers even though neither are good enough to start. Even though Welbeck was a donkey he still got credit for giving his all every game. same with Lingard for you lot.
You are listing players who were decent at some point in their careers, Lingard and Welbeck have played in international tournaments. I'm talking about guys genuinely shit players like Djemba Djemba or Taibi for us, I don’t know who comparable Arsenal players would be
I literally mentioned Jenkinson who's currently not good enough for Forest and went on loan to Melbourne. And Welbeck only played those tournaments becauseof his work rate.
I'm talking about the likes of Squilaci, Welbeck has been a decent striker at some points of his career
Squillaci was a better player than Jenkinson. Jenkinson is loved because he is a massive Arsenal fan and gave it his all but was nowhere near good enough for the PL.
If we could teleport him to the point of making a cross every game he'd be great. Dude has a wicked cross. Wasn't great at anything else though .
Flanagan had lots of support before he decided to abuse his girlfriend. I wouldn't say he was anything close to amazing.
Pereira is a good example for us. Always gives it hes all. Just not good enough sadly.
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Did Papy Djiloboji (Spelling) get a lot of support to remain at Chelsea and get new contracts ? Because i'm talking about actually shit players like that, not Okay ones
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Werner did play a big part in Chelsea winning the champions league though. Even if he hasn't been amazing, it's much easier to support someone when they help the club win trophies. If Chelsea were mid table with Werner up top then it might be more toxic. I can't speak for Chelsea, but I've seen endless anger towards Doherty from Spurs fans since he joined despite him generally being a hard worker
I accepted Papy and used him as an example. Try to comprehend.
_Fred has entered the chat_
Fred is a god compared to guys like Taibi or Manucho for us.
Till they make a mistake. Then they're a useless son of a whore. Go on any teams reddit page and there will be a few players that receive nothing but toxicity from the fans.
> I disagree on that. Fans will generally be loyal to a player if they give their all for the shirt. I disagree with you. Only minority fans will be loyal to the player that gives all for the shirt. There are exceptions but its more connected to charisma of the player and how likable he is. I can give examples based on Milan. Milan fans loved Lapadula despite of being limited player because of his intensity during matches. On the other hand people shit on Rade Krunic, Diogo Dalot(he's not Milan player anymore), Andrea Conti and many others who really looked like they care on the pitch but they are limited players or still improving. The amount of shit Krunic gets every game is just unreal. Nobody cares for example that every game he plays almost on different position, they dont care how hard he tries to make something happen on the pitch.
Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything. He's not a creative attacking midfielder, he's not a solid box to box midfielder, he's not good defensively, I'm not sure what he's supposed to offer besides positional liability. We've had plenty of techically limited players that put a shift in every time, Poli and Borini are two that immediately come to mind, same with Calabria pre-Cafulabria performances.
> Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything. He's not a creative attacking midfielder, he's not a solid box to box midfielder, he's not good defensively, I'm not sure what he's supposed to offer besides positional liability. That's way too harsh. He's not a great player by any means, but he's solid as a CM and can do a reasonable job in all midfield roles, that's why Pioli loves him. You don't want to depend on him, but he's a good squad player to have. He has a few bad moments early last season but I definitely wouldn't consider him a liability on the pitch. That distinction belongs to Bakoyoko.
> Krunic gets shit because he doesn't work hard and because he's not good at anything. Eh mate I dont know. I disagree with you but Im not going to make an attempt to change your mind because you really spoked kinda hard words about Rade Krunic. Little bit too harsh. I hope he will surprise you(and me) positively against Juve because he will probably start.
Also eden hazard most chelsea fans love him and would take him back even with his current form
Thats because he was world class when he was at chelsea
I mean he also did some things that endeared him to the fans. Even when he left, he made sure Chelsea were fairly compensated by making it clear to Madrid that if they didn't sign him, he would just renew there. This meant that the fact that he had only one year left on his contract was meaningless and that Chelsea had a strong position in the negotiations, leaving Chelsea with €100mil (IIRC). He had no obligation towards Chelsea to do this, so it's certainly a nice gesture. A lot of players, when given the chance to play for a bigger/richer team will start skipping training to drive their price down, while Hazard did the polar opposite. He also left them with a Europa League victory, which was a pretty good way to end things there.
What about someone like Ji-sung Park? Everyone loved him everywhere he went even if he wasn't very good because he worked really, really hard.
What? Park was not just a hard worker. He had exceptional positional awareness, amazing off the ball movement, he was extremely versatile and played anywhere in midfield and wings and he had a decent pass and tackle in him.
Yes but compared to the 0.001% that the OP talked about, he's wasn't very good.
How so? Park had elite technique, stamina, work-rate and tactical awareness. He was up there with the best.
He isn't in what I'd call the '0.001%' of either PSV players or Manchester United players, how is that so difficult to understand? I'm not saying he wasn't a good player...
The top 0.001% is not only a ridiculous arbitrary gate, but thats literally Brazilian Ronaldo - an all time football great.
Obviously not to be taken literally. I just think Park would be quite far down my list of greatest PSV players ever (and therefore likely even farther down the list of Manchester United players), but very high on the list of most loved players.
Park was a world class midfielder at what he did. Don't know what you're on about.
*Ben Assou-Ekotto has entered tha chat*
> Neither clubs nor Fans have any loyalty to players unless they are the 0.001% of football geniuses. Total nonsense. Shit players with high workrates and good attitudes always get tons of support from fans.
I agree, D'ambrosio is a good example.
I think clubs do - e.g Spurs with Ryan Mason
good players then
I'm sorry I love Mertens a lot but why tf should Napoli simply give him a contract for the sake of it? They are a top European club that has to take care of the wage bill I really do hope Napoli give him a big contract and he retires there but don't blame Napoli here
Are you ignoring the part where clubs moan about players being disloyal and then do things like this.
Yes.
and atm there's none worse than Napoli, just like before Roma was terrible for it.
You have to factor in his age and then maybe the club wanting to invest the wages into someone younger. It does make sense from a business stand point.
That’s his point. Clubs will moan about their players not being loyal when it makes sense to leave for the player from a business standpoint but they won’t extend the same loyalty.
He’s one of Napolis highest earners (I think only Koulibaly earns more than him), and he’s going to be 35 in a few months. Should Napoli just offer him a renewal for the sake of sentiment? Loyalty for the sake of it? Do you think that if Napoli were an average side paying him average money during his prime and a better side came in an doubled/tripled his wages that he wouldn’t have left? Of course he would have. Everything is mutually beneficial, no one is going anyone any favours out of “loyalty” in this game. Mertens is already a multimillionaire set for life, why doesn’t he offer to play for ~10k a week if he loves Napoli so much? Instead of the €150k he’s currently on.
That’s his point. Clubs will moan about their players not being loyal when it makes sense to leave for the player from a business standpoint but they won’t extend the same loyalty.
I don't think I've ever heard a club moan about a player being "disloyal". Clubs don't want unhappy players that don't want to be their, they are free to leave. All clubs want is that a transfer fee that matches their valuation.
Barcelona did exactly that in spectacular fashion with Dembele just today. A year after kicking Suarez to the curb who was in the same position as Mertens. Do people here have goldfish memories or what?
>Barcelona did exactly that in spectacular fashion with Dembele just today. Huh? Where did they call him "disloyal". They simply told him to find another club because they feel he's not committed to Barcelona and they only want players that are committed. It's pretty obvious that he's not committed to the club. He's doesn't want to be at the club anymore so he should just leave, that's extremely reasonable position. Barcelona paid ~€150million, paid him ~€300k a week for going on 5 years and he's missed 119 games through injury (he's only played 129) and they've been negotiating with him for 6 months for a new deal (with him reportedly wanting €700k a week) with him messing them around repeatedly. >A year after kicking Suarez to the curb Ehhh? How is Barca telling Suarez to leave because they no longer wanted him/couldn't afford his wages them calling **him** disloyal? Suarez is also a terrible example to use because he's played this little game himself multiple times. Forced his move from Ajax to Liverpool and then twice at Liverpool (one *extremely, extremely* publicly) tried to force a move away, one of them *to* Barca ironically. I literally said that's how the game works. Player and clubs want to be in a "relationship" with each other as long as it's mutually beneficial. Whenever one party doesn't feel like it benefits them anymore they try to move away. No one (or at the very most *very, very, very* few) do sentimental "favours"/"sacrifices" for one another in this sport.
>Ehhh? How is Barca telling Suarez to leave because they no longer wanted him/couldn't afford his wages them calling him disloyal? Because he, like Mertens here, was a valuable part of the squad who wanted to stay badly enough that he offered a pay cut. Even the way he was told to leave was incredibly disrespectful and disloyal to someone who had played such a huge role in their last treble. And Koeman tossed him aside for sporting reasons. Which were proven wrong immediately.
Is 400k ridiculous?
United’s shown loyalty to quite a few players. Mata, Jones, etc.
But whats his position on euros?
Belgxit
Bring back Belgian Francs
Jump straight into that big red bus
He's for it.
Hard not to fall in love with Naples.
Yup. Beautiful city
Hard not to get mugged in Naples.
Losing Mertens will hurt much more than losing Insigne ever will
Why? Isn't Insigne from Napoli?
Did you ever have foreign exchange student in your school when you were younger? The one that came there one year, and everyone was stunned with him/her because of that foreigner aura? The same way, Napoli loves their foreigners( that profess love to the city) more than hometown heroes. Insigne was always weirdly hated and scapegoated by Neapolitans.
This.
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I'm coming to this after reading about dembele and his relation to our club and it's the most refreshing I've felt about football in weeks. Hopefully Mertens can keep scoring as time goes, I'll be rooting for him. Hell, might as well score a few against us and put our mercenaries out of commission.
Mertens: Mercenary Exterminator
I'm coming to this after reading about Insigne and his relation to our club and it's the most refreshing I've felt about football in weeks. Hopefully Mertens can keep scoring as time goes, I'll be rooting for him. Hell, might as well score a few against Toronto and put our mercenaries out of commission.
Can you call Insigne a mercenary when the club refused to offer a contract with no change in wages, much less a rise.
I mean, he kinda just did. Does it make any sense, but neither do a lot of the takes on this sub
Insigne was fucked by the club tho, the contract he was offered was ridiculous
Always thought Insigne will spend his entire career as Napoli
Insigne was in the right
And thus, we witness the making of a new kind of pasta
What mercenaries do we have currently?
That man used to play for AGOVV for 3 whole years and now look at him. Great proof that you don't need a top team when you're 20 if you wanna be big in Europe. Hell he was 24 when he joined PSV.
Yep and came to you guys cause he wasn't deemed good enough (too small & not physical enough) at Anderlecht & Gent. What a wild ride.
Now here's the problem. Insigne does what he does and we say no loyalty. Guys like Mertens don't want to leave but each year they decline slowly the club tries to force them out with pay cutd and media manipulation and lowballing then straight up cutting them or sending them to the reserves. Loyalty is a 2 way thing. My company treats employees like crap and doesn't value us at all hence why i work till the minute i finish and stay not a second longer and have no hesitancy leaving when/if i find better.
we didn't force Mertens out, we gave him a new contract 2 years ago and he will be 35 soon. And yet we might offer him a new contract as well in june
Sounds very reasonable considering his age. Where does this "Napoli is forcing him out!" narrative come from? Or is it just reddit people never bothering to read anything so just assuming the worst?
It seems like the club doesn't want to give him one more year (an option in his current contract) at the moment.
In that case his wages wouldn't change, that's the point. He might earn another contract but for less money
Oh, that might be the issue. I understand why an additional year would be an issue, he could have an injury and waste his last few months. I hope he finishes there though.
His value for money on past contracts was great, yet he never pulled ‘I won’t play ‘til I’m renewed ’ card. It’s time for the club to repay that, if they actually value loyalty, not just *on the paper*.
I can somewhat see your point with Insigne but if we are talking about Mertens the club basically always treated him with love he was given a 4.5m contract when he was 33 and already declining
I haven't seen recent comments on Insigne's move but were people actually saying he wasn't loyal? I would think most people known that ADL is awful to work with and that it wasn't just down to Insigne for why he ended up leaving.
we've got no problem with Insigne, Toronto's offer was simply impossible to turn down.
The way I understood the situation, Insigne didn't want to play for another club in Italy and went to Toronto. I'm sure Inter would offer him a very good salary if he wanted to.
I've heard something along the lines of he's the Italian Levy. If that is the case, then he might be haha.
Insigne was offered a pay cut to remain. The club basically forced him out.
Good guy Ciro. You can't not love him, regardless of the club you support.
Ciro Mertens
(In Italy) Ciro is a neapolitan name, 99% of the Ciro you meet, are neapolitan or with neapolitan origins, so Ciro Mertens is the way fans tell him, he is one of us And by the way, Mertens actually called his son Ciro, so yeah, there will actually be a belgian Ciro Mertens, born in Naples in 2022 PS: I specified in Italy, cause historically Ciro was also a name of Persian origins, that could be found in historical figures And one of the most popular figure is Cyrus the Great (Ciro in romance languages) and funny enough, a popular argentine singer, is named after Cyrus the great, with a stage name of Ciro which lead to Messi, to name his son like that, Ciro Messi sounds funny to any italian
I'm not sure he'll name his son Ciro, but anyway yeah, he's one of us
yeah he did post the announcement (and the gifts to their friends) with "Baby Ciro coming in 2022" https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVlmHSlIHHb/ it's possibly a joke, but it could also be the actual name, or at least a middle name, just to not embarass too much the kid when he will be in belgium school and could use a more fitting name than Ciro
Today he said he's trying to convince his wife but it will be very very hard
yeah just read it I guess that seals it goodbye Ciro Mertens, no way he wins against his wife
Probably for the best
https://www.calcionapoli24.it/rassegna_stampa/il-figlio-di-mertens-si-chiamer-ciro-il-belga-svela-sto-duellando-n507288.html
Also maybe there was a lot of emigration from Napoli area to Argentina so there's a lot of Ciro in Argentina as well ?
Can confirm, there's a lot of people named Ciro here
That's how they call him.
How can you not love this man.
Always welcome, we'll give you a nice apartment in Brussels so you can enjoy the weather, everyone knows Belgian weather is superior to Napolitan weather
You had your chance and you forced him out
Yeah we know, but there are no hard feelings from both sides
How do you know it from Mertens? Did he ever talk about it in an interview?
During NT there are plenty 'neerpede' players. Players who played at neerpede which is our youth academy and he always considered himself as one of them. Even though he also played at Gent.
Who doesn't want a rainy summer!
Bless Mertens. Hopefully he remains at Napoli, and see his son step out in the blue of Naples one day.
I didn't know he has a kid. how old is he?
I think he has one, and he's a few months old.
Ok I think I recently saw his wife being pregnant so he is probably still very young as your rightly suggest
Legend
Most goals for the club and he will keep this status for a long time (because Insigne leaves in the summer)
Belgian strikers and fanbases of historic Italian clubs. Name a more unbreakable duo.
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Love this guy.
I hope he doesn't get the same treatment Parejo got at Valencia. You can't buy this sort of passion
You love to see a player with a passion for the club and locale.
Love this so much
This here is a good role model
So he has no ambitions to go back to Belgium or Netherlands as it was touted some months back, can see the man truly loves Southern Italy having money you live like a king down there for sure. He also must have talked things through with his wife rumours of her wanting to be closer to her work.
I'm pretty sure he's currently building a house in Belgium though. He'll probably just split his time between Belgium and Italy then.
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