Man Utd in contact with Dries Mertens

Manchester United are understood to have held secret talks with Napoli forward Dries Mertens ahead of a potential move to Old Trafford this summer.

The Belgian international has been leading the line for the Naples outfit ever since Arek Milik sustained a knee problem at the start of the campaign.

Milik has, however, returned from his long-standing injury over the past month but Mertens appears to have made the centre-forward position his own.

According to II Mattino, United had sent representatives to meet up with Mertens in Napoli earlier in the week in order to push through a summer transfer.

Mertens has already netted 23 across all competitions this term, and he looks on course to break his best ever tally of 27 goals in a single season with PSV between 2011 and 2012.

The attacker had opened the goalscoring for Napoli against Real Madrid in the Champions League last-16, second leg, but this was not sufficient for their progress as they lost 6-2 on aggregate.