Marek Hamsik linked to Arsenal and Chelsea by the magic of bad translation

English papers are screaming over a story that claims that Marek Hamsik wants out of Napoli, with Arsenal and Chelsea on "high alert" as one of their longest-sought targets may finally be on the transfer market. Huzzah and all that jazz!

Here we go again.

Look, we get it. People like Marek Hamsik. People don't like Napoli. They think they're too small a team for a talent like Hamsik, and that he needs to be with a "bigger and better" club. Hell, Mino Raiola gives that exact interview about four times a year, and he's not even Hamsik's agent. So they grasp at the tiniest fragments of anything they can to try to drum up discord to pry him out of Napoli's hands.

This time, they're basing everything off a single quote. One that, when you actually read it, doesn't mean what they're saying it does.

Yes, the interest [from Bayern Munich] was real, but nothing came of it. It’s not true to say I turned them down, though.

I was not the one who rejected their offer.

-Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport

That quote says that Bayern Munich made Napoli an offer for Hamsik, which we knew, and that Hamsik was aware of it, which we knew. It also says that Hamsik was not the one who rejected it, thus implying that Napoli rejected the offer before making their captain aware of it.

Where the wires are getting crossed is that latter point. English media are interpreting it as Hamsik being upset that Napoli rejected the offer, that he wanted to accept the move, despite there being zero evidence of that being the case. To assume otherwise means someone is either working from a bad translation, or is willfully misinterpreting the quote for their own purposes.

The actual evidence says that he is going nowhere, either this summer or any time soon. Hamsik has continually maintained that he wants to retire in Naples, and that he'll stay for as long as it makes sense to. Even his agent recently said that Hamsik will only leave if it benefits both him and Napoli to make a transfer, and right now no fee is worth Napoli losing their captain, especially with other important players looking set to leave this summer.

So if Arsenal or Chelsea want a Napoli player, there's a certain striker with a release clause for them to trigger. Otherwise, go somewhere else.