​Serie A side Napoli's star forward Dries Mertens has revealed that he indeed had the option to replace Neymar in the Barcelona team but he decided to turn down the Blaugrana's offer in favour of staying at Naples.





Speaking to ​Het Laatste Nieuws, Mertens revealed, "Barcelona wanted to sign me last summer, they wanted me to replace the MSN but after the last season I didn’t want to return to bench and I rejected their offer. Barcelona have paid € 100 million to sign players who are not as strong as me.”





United 'target' Dries Mertens reveals approach #mufc https://t.co/EJjsXgOUBY — Man United News (@ManUtdMEN) November 26, 2017





The Belgian superstar then reveals how he feels regarding his decision to not go to Barcelona and states, "Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I had joined them. If you look at who has been playing on the left in the last few months, I think I could have easily played there.”





Messi wants to finish career at Barca, Mertens could have joined Barca & other top 5 stories this morninghttps://t.co/omvOhInXcs — Barcelona Live (@barca90live) November 26, 2017





Instead of leaving Napoli, Mertens ended up signing a new contract with his club last summer however his release clause is incredibly low.





The Belgian forward will be available for just €28m at the end of this season and Manchester United as well as Barcelona are tracking his progress closely.