Oh look, it's another chapter of the "Agents Are Jerks" story that Napoli have been having to deal with all summer long: in an interview with an Inter Milan news site, Dries Mertens' agent Soren Lerby gave the following bizarre and frustrating quote:

Inter? I can say that these are not simple rumors or unfounded rumors. [A transfer to] Inter is a real possibility. However, Dries is happy at Napoli, but next week we will know more about his future.

-Source: Corriere dello Sport

Come on. Really? Lerby has been a fairly respectable figure in the past, but this is just straight bullcrap from the former Danish international. First off, there haven't been any rumors of note, aside from some whispers that Inter were considering maybe thinking about the possibility of making an informal inquiry. Which is to say, paper talk. Paper talk that dried up as soon as Napoli's friendlies came around and it became clear that Mertens is highly valued by Napoli and that he looks set to play a fairly large role in the side.

In reality, there's almost zero "real possibility" that any such transfer takes place. This is a classic agent tactic: his client wants a new deal, so he fabricates crap like this in the media in order to help create leverage and incentive to get a favorable deal done. That reference to knowing more next week? You can almost guarantee he has a meeting already set up with Napoli to open talks on a potential extension.

I'd thought that Lerby was above such underhanded nonsense like this, but apparently not.