{"id":1098325,"date":"2019-07-17T18:29:42","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T17:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1098325"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:29:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T17:29:42","slug":"napoli-mertens-backs-sarri-juventus","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/napoli-mertens-backs-sarri-juventus\/","title":{"rendered":"Napoli forward Mertens backs Sarri after Juventus switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Napoli winger Dries Mertens has played down controversy surrounding Maurizio Sarri&#8217;s move to Juventus, saying he&#8217;ll &#8220;always love&#8221; his former manager.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sarri left Napoli last summer to join Chelsea but after just one season \u2013 in which he won the Europa League \u2013 has returned to Italy, replacing Max Allegri at Juventus.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mertens under Sarri: Five key things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mertens arrived at Napoli from PSV in 2013.<\/li>\n<li>Sarri followed two years later after Mertens had scored 17 goals in 64 Serie A games.<\/li>\n<li>The Belgian was converted into a striker under Sarri and scored 51 goals in 106 games.<\/li>\n<li>After a year at Chelsea, Sarri has now taken over at Juventus.<\/li>\n<li>Mertens has credited the Italian for giving him &#8220;everything&#8221; in football.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7311398-alexander-arnold-s-perfect-mentor-the-goat-right-back-is-available-for-free<\/p>\n<p>The move to the Serie A champions has been met with discontent among some sections of the Napoli support but Mertens has moved to calm the mood, praising a manager he claims gave him &#8220;everything&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe coached me for three years, he showed me football in a different way and I loved it,\u201d the Belgian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-italia.net\/140894\/mertens-ill-always-love-sarri\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t think Cristiano Ronaldo has much to learn, but Juve will have fun with him. However, I\u2019ll always love Sarri. He\u2019s someone who gave me everything,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s strange to see him at Juve, but I have no problems with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What Should Arsenal Do Next? Squawka Documentary\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PtQrlhxwj78?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mertens is on the trail of Napoli&#8217;s goalscoring record next season \u2013 sitting just six behind the legendary Diego Maradona and 12 behind Marek Hamsik \u2013 and the 32-year-old certainly counts the landmark among his objectives for 2019\/20.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope so, it would be a good thing. Certainly it\u2019s an objective of mine,\u201d he replied when asked if he aims to become the club&#8217;s all-time top goalscorer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Sarri I was a centre-forward, but last season I played in a different role, behind the strikers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t hurt if another striker came in. Milik played lots of games last season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script>(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='https:\/\/embed.playbuzz.com\/sdk.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,'script','playbuzz-sdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Napoli winger Dries Mertens has played down controversy surrounding Maurizio Sarri&#8217;s move to Juventus, saying he&#8217;ll &#8220;always love&#8221; his former manager. Sarri left Napoli last summer to join Chelsea but after just one season \u2013 in which he won the Europa League \u2013 has returned to Italy, replacing Max Allegri at Juventus. Mertens under Sarri:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1087142,"parent":0,"menu_order":6018,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Napoli star Dries Mertens has played down controversy surrounding Maurizio Sarri's move to Juventus, saying he'll \"always love\" the Italian.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1098325","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Napoli forward Mertens backs Sarri after Juventus switch | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Napoli star Dries Mertens has played down controversy surrounding Maurizio Sarri&#039;s move to Juventus, 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